Before the hunt

Country: Austria

Manufactory: Augarten

Date of establishment: 1930s

Size (cm): 18*19

Porcelain Story

In my ''porcelain chronicles'' I have already told several times about our visits to the wonderful Viennese museums. Of course, the former imperial palace Augarten (with its rather modest porcelain museum) cannot be compared in scope with the Belvedere palace complex with huge and seemingly endless museums. But how pleasant it is to realize that almost three centuries ago, within the walls of the Vienna Porcelain Museum, one of the first porcelain manufactories in Europe was born, not blindly copying porcelain brought by merchants from distant China, and now its own, European porcelain. How nice, going right into the oven, in which porcelain items were once fired, as if to feel the heat of a fire that does not destroy, but creates. Creator of beauty, which is destined to live for hundreds of years...

Once again, in the next museum, I noted for myself a certain indifference of visitors to porcelain dishes. Surprisingly, even the most elaborately painted plates and vases do not arouse much interest in people. While the plot scenes of porcelain figures make us look at the heroes of the composition for a long time, according to the author's idea, even after centuries, it conveys the energy of a hand-made work.

I can’t say that I myself don’t like antique dishes with unique paintings from the life of Prussian or Saxon kings, with amazing landscapes and portraits of rare beauty. In any case, such works arouse much more interest in me than the ancient faceless Chinese plate, evenly covered with green glaze, recently sold for 38 million dollars (!) at an auction in Hong Kong. But for myself, nevertheless, I once again noted that the direction of the future Kyiv exhibition chosen by us - the Museum of Porcelain Figures - is exactly what can arouse the greatest interest among people who are not very experienced in this art and who expect to get understandable and affordable pleasure from visiting such museum…

When we left the Augarten towards evening, in the cool autumn air, from somewhere behind the high palace walls, came the wheezing of heated horses and the shrill barking of hunting dogs. I’m looking at this porcelain composition now - and it’s as if I hear it all again...