Vase (one of a pair)

During the first several decades of operation, the Meissen factory sold undecorated porcelain to independent porcelain painters known as Hausmalers, or literally “painter/s [working] at home.”[1] The factory may have been motivated to make these sales for several reasons; chiefly, they generated revenue and provided a means of disposing of “seconds,” or slightly flawed objects, as well as models no longer deemed fashionable. In turn, the Hausmalers must have anticipated that they could decorate the porcelains in their small, independent workshops and sell the completed products for lesser sums than those commanded by factory- decorated objects. In general, the Meissen “blanks” painted by Hausmalers exhibit a wide range of individual styles that distinguish them from works decorated at Meissen, which tended to adhere to the factory style promulgated at any given moment. While the work of some Hausmalers can appear less accomplished and sophisticated than the techniques practiced by the painters at Meissen, other Hausmalers were highly skilled porcelain painters who developed distinctive styles that allowed their works to compete with those produced at Meissen. In addition, independent painters could accommodate a client’s wishes in terms of specific decorative schemes more easily than the factory, a function that enhanced the appeal of Hausmalerei, the term used for independently decorated porcelain. In recognition of various threats to the factory’s financial success, in 1722 Meissen ensured that all porcelain sold bore the factory mark consisting of crossed swords painted under the glaze,[2] and only defective white porcelain was made available to independent decorators.[3]

The decoration on the two Museum vases is attributed to Ignaz Preissler (German, 1676–1741), one of the most talented and prolific of the Hausmalers. Porcelains decorated by Preissler are usually painted with black enamel in a style known as Schwarzlot (literally translated as “black lead”), in red enamel, or a combination of the two.[4] He was particularly skilled in employing fine lines scratched into the enamel before firing to create a high level of detail, and the use of this technique is one of the distinguishing features of his style. In addition, frequently used gilding to highlight certain details, and the execution of the scenes on these two vases is typical of his finest work. The vases are so- called Böttger porcelain (see 42.205.26), a term often used to describe the first porcelain body developed at Meissen by Johann Friedrich Böttger (German, 1682–1719). It has a distinctive off- white hue in contrast to the cooler, whiter porcelain paste developed in the early 1720s after Böttger’s death. Much of the Meissen porcelain decorated by Hausmalers dates from Böttger’s time; it is probable that undecorated pieces from this early period were regarded as inferior to the new, whiter porcelain and thus sold by the factory to independent decorators.

The form of these vases shares similarities with those of other vases produced at Meissen during the years 1713–20, in which a simple baluster form is enhanced with applied low-relief decoration,[5] in this instance, with acanthus leaves and a mask. However, the only other vases of this exact model known to the author are a pair now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, which are slightly smaller in scale.[6] The decoration on the two vases in Chicago can be firmly attributed to Preissler, and the shared type of decoration and gilding suggests that they and the Museum vases once formed a garniture, or a set of vases. The garniture almost certainly would have included a fifth and larger vase, probably of the same model, but no such vase is known.

All four vases are painted with naval battle scenes that are notable for the density of the compositions, the prominent billowing clouds of smoke, and the turbulent seas, which are rendered by fine lines scratched into the black enamel. Similar scenes in miniature are found just below the rim and on the foot. The choice of these two areas for decoration is one indication that these vases were painted outside the factory, as scenes painted in these locations would be highly unusual on factory-decorated vases. It is a measure of Preissler’s skill as a painter that the primary scenes are composed to accommodate the two low-relief masks on each vase.

Maureen Cassidy-Geiger has persuasively suggested that the scenes on all four vases were inspired directly by a series of prints issued to commemorate the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14).[7] These prints were part of a much larger group depicting significant events associated with the war that appeared in Repraesentatio Belli, ob successionem in Regno Hispanico . . . published by Jeremias Wolff (German, 1663–1724) of Augsburg sometime after 1714. This album of oversize prints is likely to have been purchased by a knowledgeable and affluent collector rather than by an artist for practical use, and thus Preissler’s access to prints from the volume suggests the active involvement of a patron in the commissioning of these vases.[8] This ability to execute decoration to customized orders was one of the factors that allowed Hausmalers to occupy a significant, if still underappreciated, role in the porcelain market in the first half of the eighteenth century, and the porcelain sold by the factory to these independent decorators represents an intriguing chapter in Meissen’s history.


Footnotes
For key to shortened references see bibliography in Munger, European Porcelain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018)
1 Cassidy-Geiger 1989, p. 240. The current under- standing and appreciation of the work of Hausmalers is much indebted to Maureen Cassidy-Geiger. See also Cassidy-Geiger 1987.
2 The requirement to use the crossed swords was rein- forced in March 1731; Cassidy-Geiger 1994, p. 6, n. 6.
3 Pietsch 2011, p. 43.
4 For information on Preissler, see Cassidy-Geiger 1987; Cassidy-Geiger 1989, especially the biographical information on pp. 252–53. See also Espir 2005, pp. 128–30.
5 See E. Zimmermann 1926, p. 24, fig. 8; Meissen 1984, ill. no. 180.
6 See Art Institute of Chicago, Pair of Vases and Covers, 1715–20. Decorated by Ignaz Preissler, German (1676–1741), Restricted Gift of The Antiquarian Society through Mrs. Edgar J. Uihlein (1984.80a–b and 1984.81a– b). The two vases are now fitted with lids that presumably were intended originally for coffeepots. While the gilding and black enamel on the lids appear to relate to what is visible on the vases, it is not known when the lids were added. See Müller- Hofstede 1983, pp. 26–27.
7 The relationship between the vases, a related partial tea service, and the prints is discussed thoroughly in Cassidy- Geiger 1989.
8 Ibid., p. 252.