Sky journey

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 1999

Sculptor: Juan Ignacio Aliena

Size (cm): 34*46

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

It seems to me that I have already mentioned once that in our family we at one time conducted ''opinion polls'' about the works collected in our collection. The condition was this: out of thousands of compositions, choose only five of those that, in the opinion of each respondent, are included in his personal list of the best, most beautiful, most important. We asked this question in different years to both the smallest family members and those who are older. The collection changed, new works appeared in it. The children grew up. But, even being not very keen on the porcelain theme, they somehow could not help but react to the world that surrounds them every day. Including the world of porcelain beauty.

And now the most interesting. Comparing the lists of the five main works for each of us, we each time paid attention to the fact that several works were necessarily repeated in each of the lists. And among them has always been today's absolutely unique, in my opinion, work. Once again I want to emphasize that there are not so few parameters for the uniqueness of a work. A very small run, for example, or an unusually large (small) size. Or authorship, which significantly affects the price of the work. Or the price itself, because of which some collectors practically do not pay attention to other evaluation parameters, because for such collectors of valuables the most important thing is just the "capitalization" of the purchase - in the hope of later earning double or triple on it, and even then be satisfied.

I will say right away, probably, the work presented to your attention does not meet all these indicators. Unlike hundreds of other works collected in our collection. And yet it is unique. I sometimes say to interlocutors who are not very familiar: after all, we are simple, rural people ... This is partly true, because for more than ten years we have lived in one of the villages of the Obukhovsky district not far from Kyiv. And it was at that time that a sudden and then not passing passion for collecting porcelain woke up in us. And at first, it was our rural house that turned into a dwelling entirely filled with porcelain, in which it was sometimes even difficult to get through without risking touching any statuette. By the way, at the same time, during one of the first rural ''presentations'' of our still small collection, the idea of the future museum was born.

So, for us, the uniqueness of this or that composition (even in the absence of obvious other parameters of its exclusivity) lies in the fact that we just ... really like it! That's all. And this is just the case.

I would just call this work in a different way. I would call it - ''Good news''. On the eve of the Nativity of Christ, a composition with such a name is even perceived differently - more sensual, deeper, more soulful, more meaningful. Perhaps, following the author's idea, the angels in this fabulous chariot are just making a heavenly journey, carrying the Good News to Bethlehem at night, where Mary, who gave birth to Jesus and, for lack of free places in the hotel, settled down with him in a cave that served as a barn, for the first time put the baby to her breast? Maybe that's how it all happened?