Current and coming

Rococo exotic

The mounting of Asian porcelain in Europe dates to the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, and even into the seventeenth century, it was the rarity of porcelain itself that was the raison d'etre for this practice. But by the middle of the eighteenth century, when porcelain was no longer a novelty, mounted Asian porcelains became the height of fashion, especially in Paris.

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In eighteenth-century France large Asian porcelains were particularly coveted, both for their quality and sheer beauty and because large pieces were not often made for the European market. Even though the Europeans could now make porcelain themselves, it was fashionable to collect more exotic examples. Encased in beautifully designed, well cast, and finely chased mounts, lustrous and colorful Asian porcelain became for French aristocrats the height of visual and aesthetic pleasure. To own and display such fine works was a sign of wealth, social distinction, and taste. By and large these handsome ceramics had no practical use. Prominently positioned on pedestals, large tables, or in special cabinets, and often set off in front of mirrors, mounted porcelain proclaimed its owner to be a person of great distinction.

A small and highly focused exhibition entitled Rococo Exotic: French Mounted Porcelains and the Allure of the East has opened at the Frick Collection in New York City, a museum noted for its exceptional collection of European decorative arts. Kristel Smentek, an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow there, has assembled an interesting group of materials to explain past and present interest and appreciation for mounted porcelains. The center attraction is a pair of Chinese porcelain jars with French gilt-bronze mounts, acquired by Henry Clay Frick in 1915.

The jars are glazed with a single cobalt blue color and date to the first half of the eighteenth century. As they were made for the domestic market, few such examples made their way west. When the jars arrived in France they were sawed apart at the neck and shoulder to form lidded vessels, and they were then mounted on gilt-bronze bases and decorated with handles and finials of gilt metal in the rococo style. Because these operations involved more than one kind of craftsman, the procedure was handled by marchands merciers, who were the only ones licensed to proffer such works.

The exhibition includes drawings and engravings of rococo designs that served as models for the mounts. In addition are collections of exotic seashells, sea fans, coral, sea urchins, and other natural materials that inspired these designs. There is an excellent catalogue written by the show's curator that explains all the various aspects of the trade, the fabrication of such mounted porcelains, the way they were displayed, much about what went into collecting them, and who the collectors were. The exhibition is on view through June 10. To order the catalogue see page 73 or telephone the museum's book shop at 212-547-6848.

American Ruskinians

What John Ruskin was to the British Pre-Raphaelites Charles Eliot Norton was to their American followers. As a writer, critic, and teacher, this native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, preached the theme of truth to nature on these shores and was a force behind the movement long after it began to wane. He encouraged artists to follow Ruskin's message in Modern Painters (1843) of replicating in detail exactly what they saw. He also promoted through his teaching and writing an appreciation of Italian Renaissance art, an important aspect of Pre-Raphaelitism.

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An exhibition of works by the American followers of Ruskin entitled The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and Their Circle is on view from April 7 to July 8 at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge, where Norton was Harvard's first professor of fine arts and where several of these artists were students or teachers. Their delicate, intensely colored, and carefully drawn watercolors mostly depict materials from nature, such as flowers, leaves, feathers, and seashells, but they also drew landscapes, architecture, ruins, and antique artifacts.

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The exhibition includes drawings by Ruskin and the two British artists whose works he revered, Joseph Mallord William Turner and William Henry Hunt. On the American side works by such painters as Henry Roderick Newman, Francesca Alexander, John William Hill, and Joseph Lindon Smith are represented. Among the highlights of the exhibition are the fine watercolors by Charles Herbert Moore, who left a strong legacy at Harvard where he taught drawing and became the first director of the Fogg.

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The American Pre-Raphaelite movement, which began in the late 1850s, has been considered a fairly shortlived style, but this exhibition shows that despite the popularity of the looser, more atmospheric style of French art in the 1870s, the Pre-Raphaelite movement was of a longer duration and more influential than is generally thought. This was especially true at Harvard, where the study of art became a separate subject fairly early and where Pre-Raphaelite followers also taught in the school of architecture.