Development of the Meissen Manufactory’s Service-Making Traditions: "Swan Service"

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to comprehensively analyse the peculiarities of decor and form-making used by the artists of the Meissen Manufactory in the first half of the eighteenth century on the example of the “Swan Service”. The research methodology is interdisciplinary, based on an integral analysis of historical facts and events in the light of art historical processes and cultural approaches. Analytical and synthetic methods of scientific research from quantitative and qualitative groups allow for a multilevel analysis – first of all, to systematically classify the components of the service and to some extent to find out the statistics of the assortment, to trace the geography of locations in various museum collections, as well as private collections; to conduct a formal and stylistic analysis of the main types of tableware forms; to track all variants of the iconography of motifs against the background of the historical and cultural realities of the eighteenth century, that form the iconology of the theme. Scientific novelty. A comprehensive study of the evolution of the style of Meissen porcelain forms and decor on the example of the “Swan Service”, created at the turn of the 1730s and 1740s, has not yet been conducted in the national art historical discourse. Conclusions. The study of the “Swan Service” as an artistic ensemble has revealed its exceptional role in the formation of European porcelain traditions. It harmoniously combines several decorative strategies that intertwine the traditions of Oriental and early modern European porcelain. In this aspect, the “Swan Service” by G. von Brühl demonstrates the stylistic syncretism of the already dominant European (general iconographic programme) and local oriental styles (use of the Indianische Blumen motif).