We're in the Galleries of
Sculpture and Decorative Arts at
the Getty Center looking at two
works of ceramic. These are
porcelain, which in the early
18th century was precious
material.
Here you see a fox and a turkey.
There's an extraordinary story
behind the commissioning and
fabrication of these animals.
These were ordered by Augustus
the Strong. He was the Elector
of Saxony and also the King of
Poland. He had financed the
Meissen Manufactory. He had
underwritten the creation of the
first porcelain in Europe.
He was fascinated, as many other
rulers in Europe at the time
were, with Asian ceramics. He
had one of the largest
collections of Asian ceramics in
Europe at the time, some 24,000
pieces. This inspired him to
also establish his own porcelain
manufactory at Meissen.
Porcelain that had been made in
China began to enter into the
European market in the 15th
century. By the time we get to
the early 18th century, there
was an enormous appetite for
this very precious material. It
has an almost liquid surface,
and yet it's hard and allows for
a luminous color.
The Europeans had been
fascinated by this material for
a long time and were anxious to
figure out how to make it.
Augustus the Strong commissioned
an alchemist to figure out how
to make true hard paste
porcelain like that made in
China and Japan. He was
eventually able to make
porcelain around 1710, the
first porcelain made in Europe.
Augustus was not satisfied with
replicating the work that was
coming from Asia. He would
eventually order a virtual
menagerie of life-sized animals
for his palace in Dresden, which
became known as the Japanese
Palace because it would also
house many thousands of
porcelain objects from China and
Japan.
Where he got the idea for the
commission of these life-sized
animals is a mystery, but it was
to fill the very first long
gallery of the upper floor. It
was to house up to 500 of these
porcelain animals in display of
his wealth and his prestige.
This type of porcelain of this
size had not been attempted in
Europe before.
He was pushing just to the edge
of what was technically possible.
The objects were skillfully
designed to anticipate the
limitations of firing such a
large and heavy piece of
porcelain, a process that
inevitably resulted in at least
some cracks, which are
camouflaged to a great degree by
the complexity of of the surface,
especially at the base.
If you look at the way the fox
is seated, he has his head
forward and he's grasping the
chicken in his mouth. If you
look at the way the chicken is
formed, it falls down to the
base, as well. It's serving as a
support for the head of the fox.
The composition supports the
ultimate success of this figure.
I want to go back to the issue
of animals. Why would Augustus
the Strong, who was trying to
represent his taste, his wealth,
and his oversight of this
technical innovation...Why would
he choose animals? It might be
useful to place this collection
in the broader context of his
palaces in and around Dresden.
He had a number of palaces and
also a number of zoos or
menageries of live, domestic,
and exotic animals. He also had
a collection of taxidermied
animals. This signified a ruler,
such as Augustus, his dominion
over the natural world. Not just
his own subjects, but also the
animal world, as well.
Looking at the fox closely,
there is an anthropomorphic
quality to him. He looks guilty,
as if he's stolen the chicken
and he knows it's wrong. There
is a difference when we look at
the turkey. Here, there seems to
be less of the applying of human
nature to the animal kingdom.
This is by the second artist who
worked on this great commission.
He was taking his inspiration
initially from looking at prints,
but eventually seems to have
taken his inspiration from
direct observation of some of
these animals in the royal
menageries. When you look
closely at his head, the way the
eye looks at you, it is as if he
was just not frozen in porcelain
but just come to life in front
of you.
It's true. When I look at him,
it feels as if the feathers are
rustling. Then, of course,
there's that wonderful snood
that hangs down just above his
beak and wraps back around in a
remarkably elegant manner given
that this is a turkey.
He's displaying himself during
the mating ritual. He's making
himself look as large and as
impressive as possible. He is
really standing in his full
glory.
These animals seem to be such a
product of the late 17th and
early 18th centuries. This
moment of scientific exploration,
the moment of the curiosity
cabinet, the zeal for collecting.
They are an expression of a
culture trying to understand the
natural world, as well as
control it.
Each one of these is really a
miracle of production and
survival.
Given how prone to accident the
production was for porcelain at
this scale, being fired at
extremely high temperatures, and
given the delicacy of the
figures and the centuries that
have elapsed since they were
produced, it is a miracle that
we have these on display at the
Getty. They are beautiful
objects, in and of themselves,
but to know the stories behind
them, to know what they
represented in terms of
investment, in terms of
technology, they truly come to
life.