Article Archive 2006
Italian Renaissance Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is distinguished by two exceptional works, the Madonna of the Clouds by Donatello and the bronze statuette of Architecture by Giambologna...
16 October, 2006
A Decade of Ceramics Aquisitions by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Since 1996, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has acquired through gift, bequest, and purchase nearly 450 pieces of European ceramics, running the gamut from 15th century maiolica to contemporary British studio pottery.1 These acquisitions have strategically filled gaps, bolstered areas of specialization, and
broadened the scope of the collection. This article offers only a glimpse of the enormous variety of European ceramics acquired by the museum...
26 June, 2006
The Politics of Porcelain: Preview of an Exhibition
In his dedication to The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote: "Those who strive to obtain the
good graces of a prince are accustomed to come before him with such things as they hold most precious, or in which they see him take most delight; whence one often sees horses, arms, cloth of gold, precious stones, and similar ornaments presented to princes, worthy of their greatness." The exhibition Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for Foreign Courts, 1710-1763, scheduled to open in October 2007 at the Bard Graduate Center in New York, poses the question, ‘How did Meissen porcelain function as an object of diplomatic currency in the 18th century...
13 June, 2006
Profits, Politics and Philanthropy: The origins of Worcester Porcelain 1740-1751
With some justification, narrative accounts of the origins of porcelain manufacture in mid-18th century England tend to share two characteristics. Most, as Hilary Young has observed, are primarily aimed at providing the collector with the technical distinctions to be made between the outputs of each factory. Conversely, the majority of such studies also, even if by implication rather than design, provide a social history of the early factories which tend to focus upon those elements of the story which emphasize the similarities and connections between the different factories...
12 June, 2006
Silverfashion Porcelain
Walking through the Ceramic Galleries at the V&A in spring 2005 with Hilary Young was for a silver specialist a stimulating reminder of the continuous dialogue of form and function between the precious metals and ceramics. Silver forms leap out, for example soup plates of the late 1720s in export porcelain or a helmet jug in Rouen faience, painted with gadroons, ribs and mask which also appear, cast in high relief, on a silver-gilt jug by the Huguenot goldsmith David Willaume in the Whiteley Silver Galleries...
10 June, 2006