Return to Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collection, 1800–1850
This rectangular plaque was produced as a tray for a tea service in which all the components were decorated with references to the celebrated Italian Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571). The tray depicts a fictitious meeting between Cellini and the French monarch Francis I, to whom the sculptor presents a gilded ewer and basin. The gradations of color and the luminous highlights of the painting perfectly capture the cameo carver's art, and this tray represents one of the largest and most ambitious pieces of porcelain decorated in this style.
This cup and saucer are painted with a wealth of motifs that refer to classical antiquity and to decorative techniques strongly associated with Italy's past. The birds are depicted in the style of a micromosaic, in which hundreds or thousands of minute pieces of colored glass were assembled to create an image or pattern. Close inspection of the bird panels on these cups and saucers reveals the thin lines painted to provide the illusion of many separate pieces of glass.
The popularity of flower plates decorated with a profusion of blooms is easily explained by the striking appearance of the present example in which daffodils, depicted with an almost hyperrealism, seem to be emerging from the center of the plate. Both the flowers and the leaves are painted with a precision and an attention to detail that bring the daffodils to life, creating a vibrant portrait of the plant.
One of the most original and striking designs in early nineteenth-century porcelain decorates this cup and saucer. On the cup, songbirds appear behind the gilded bars of their cage, and the saucer is painted as if it were the birdcage seen from above, with a hanging ring in the center. The gray clouds and blue sky that form the background provide a sense of depth. Caged songbirds carried a variety of associations, such as the notion of love, either contained or expressed, or the embodiment of spring.
The band that encircles the upper section of the cup depicts a horse race at the Champs de Mars in Paris as well as the arriving spectators and preparations for the race. The cup and stand were presented to the Comtesse de Montalivet, a lady-in-waiting to Empress Marie-Louise, as a New Year's gift in 1812. While small in scale, the cup and its stand have been given the qualities of a presentation trophy through the richness of the decoration and the commemoration of a specific event.
The Berlin factory was renowned for the quality of its botanical plates. On this example the plant, a type of Portuguese mullein, is rendered with great skill and precision, and fills the well of the plate in a highly sophisticated composition. The porcelain painter copied a drawing from a botanical album but adapted it so the contours of the plant conform to the circular shape of the well.