Saturday, August 31, 2013

The Beguiling Porcelain Couple

An Adventure in Looking


 Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

Trondheim, Norway, is home to the National Museum of Decorative Arts - Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum .  Established in 1893 as a museum of applied art, its collection comprises over 40,000 objects of which approximately 1,000 are on display.  Thanks to astute, forward-looking directors buying contemporary works, the museum has exceptional examples of early twentieth-century furniture and utilitarian objects as well as crafts and design of the twenty-first century.  Other acquisitions illuminate the historical development of decorative arts. 

I knew the museum was well-worth visiting since I had been there before.  Thus, given a recent opportunity to go back again, I grabbed it.  My intent was visual enjoyment and serendipitous discovery.  

The museum’s lower level galleries are filled with objects, dating from the middle ages to the present.  Furniture, tapestries, paintings, designs, and display cases with glass, ceramic and silver wares compete for attention.  

One vitrine held eighteenth-century Meissen and Royal Copenhagen porcelains.  I surveyed the small mythological and pastoral figurines.



 Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

A Royal Copenhagen piece caught my eye (display case #35, middle shelf, 2nd from left).*  It shows a swooning maiden ostensibly succumbing to the initial advances of a nude male who is about to place a kiss on her right wrist.  The male sits with his back to the viewer, front and center along the base of the porcelain’s triangular format.  The woman’s head is at  the composition's apex.  The triangle form is echoed by the V-shaped tree trunk and the bent left arms of the two figures.  Nudity underscores the work's exemplary modeling.

At first I dismissed the piece as simply a typical late eighteenth-century neoclassical grouping, a bit more sensual than most.

I walked on but soon paused.  What was really going on between the couple?   Was it a seduction or something else?  Why was he undressed and she clothed?  I went back for closer inspection.



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

Dress and hair set the couple in antiquity.  She wears an ancient Greek type of garment called an Ionic chiton.  It was made with light weight fabric, intricately draped into many pleat-like folds and secured by shoulder brooches and belt.  In the porcelain piece, one such fastening in gold appears to have slipped down exposing the lady’s breasts.  Her arms and lower legs are also undraped.  



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

Hairstyles are Greek.  His is short.  Hers, adorned with a pink and violet-blue flower garland, is long, swept neatly up on one side.  On her other side and back, her tresses are down.   Stray wisps of hair appear on the figures’ foreheads and necks.  A loose strand of the lady's locks rests on top of her left hand.   Is the woman's coiffure partly undone like her dress or simply the style?



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Hillary Ganton

Pinks and reds highlight mouths, nostrils and the inner corner of the man's wide open eyes.  His skin darker than hers.  Both figures have reddened cheeks.

I considered clues to the work’s meaning: flushed faces, mussed hair, loosened dress, uncovered breasts, naked male.  Are we seeing a couple post or precoital?  Is this foreplay or post-play?  Is he undressed because of what took place or what is planned?  Is her gown disheveled because of what has happened or is happening?



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Hillary Ganton

A straw-colored basket of colorful flowers rests between the couple.  Two blooms have fallen out as if to underscore the twosome.  Their petals do not touch.  Could the full floral basket denote a flowering of a relationship?  Are the ground flowers a suggestion of separateness or disconnect?  Are they purely decorative elements?  Probably, naturalistic flowers were typical motifs for porcelains during this period.



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

I noted contrasts.  The male stares straight ahead.  The woman’s eyes are closed. Her bosom is bare, open for play.  Her lower half covered: legs cross, toes touch as if to close off any advance. 



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

The male’s left hand is active, holding the female’s right wrist.  He bends his head, placing his lips on her skin.  His right hand, unengaged, casually rests on his left thigh.  

I questioned what their looks communicate.  Is his straight-ahead stare a sign of boredom or anticipation?  Does her face express pleasure or ennui.  She could be saying to herself, “What have I gotten into?” or “What have I done?” or “This is wonderful.” 



 Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

The museum curator, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, kindly allowed me to see the piece outside its case. Obviously, the porcelain was meant to be seen in the round.  Its form and size invite handling.  From the back, contrasting textures and colors stand out - the woman’s thick black hair against the white of her dress, the twisted gold girdle between the soft garment folds, and the greens and browns of the rough tree trunk and uneven ground distinct from the smoothness of the figure's execution. 



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen,
 glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

The Royal Copenhagen porcelain marking - three wavy lines symbolizing Denmark's straits - appears on the rear base.  

The curator told me he had found only two other examples of the figure group.  Both are in private collections.  A couple of motifs differed.  One had a flower basket; the other did not.  One had the woman’s eyes open and the other did not.  The porcelain is  most likely a reproduction of a Meissen piece.  Almost all of Royal Copenhagen factory figurines produced during this period were copies of Meissen originals.  The work's title, Night Group or Night and Day, and its attribution to the painter A. Hald were not certain.


I pondered Night and Day personifications.  My first thought was Michelangelo’s Medici Chapel in Florence, Italy.



Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, 1520 - 1534, marble, 
20 ft. 8 in. x 13 ft. 9 in. (6.1 m x 20.3 cm x3.9 m 22.9 cm), 
Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy 

The tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici has two figures personifying Night and Day. Night is a female with her right hand raised to her head. Day is a male. My thoughts turned to Greek mythology. The Greek goddess of Night is Nyx. Hemera is the Greek goddess of Day, who was the result of Nyx mating with the god of darkness, Erebos. The association of Day with a male may relate to Apollo, the sun/day god. His twin, the goddess Diana, is identified with the moon/night. Alas, they were not lovers. This was not leading me anywhere.  Wait.  Could this be a forest nymph and her lover.  I stop.

My search for meaning has come to no conclusion.  Perhaps, the work was meant to be ambiguous.  The viewer could interpret as he or she saw fit.  Whatever, the piece entices intense looking.  Though not a masterpiece, the porcelain couple is full of visual delights.  On your next museum visit, spend some time with a non-master work.  You will very likely be rewarded.

More to come about Trondheim’s National Museum of Decorative Arts.

*I am indebted to Steffen Wesselvold Holden of the National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway, for his splendid digital photographs of the porcelain.

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