Lightboxes
Carrito
alb3663519

MIRROR

Mirror. Culture: German, Danzig (Gdansk). Dimensions: 75 x 64 x 4 in. (190.5 x 162.6 x 10.2 cm). Date: ca. 1680-1700. Large parade mirrors became increasingly fashionable throughout Europe during the Baroque period, and they were often conceived as part of an ensemble, with matching console tables and candlestands. This development was supported by technical advances that made it possible to produce larger plates of mirror glass and driven by the ambition of princes to imitate the magnificent Galerie des Glaces in the suite of state rooms at Versailles, created in 1681-84 by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) for Louis XIV of France.[1] At the end of the seventeenth century, goods and artistic ideas flowed through northeastern Europe along trade routes that connected English and Netherlandish ports with the cities along the Baltic Sea and points east. The latest fashions were eagerly received and copied as closely as local craftsmen could manage and local patrons could afford. This mirror was once believed to be of Dutch origin,[2] but its putti nestled among a tangle of jaggedly lobed acanthus leaves have proved to be very similar to works in wood by the cabinetmakers and virtuoso carvers of the independent town of Danzig, one of the most prosperous trade centers on the Baltic seacoast and a gateway to Russia. Large quantities of household goods, such as Dutch case furniture and English chairs,[3] were imported into Danzig during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as were luxury items like the popular Chinese blue-and-white porcelains. The grotesque dragon-monsters on this mirror, with their intriguingly intertwined necks and long tails, were obviously inspired by the decorations on the porcelain exported from East Asia. Dragons have been part of both Eastern and Western imagery for millennia, but seventeenth-century European craftsmen were probably unaware of their symbolism as water deities in the East and of Satan in the West. This frame offers an ingenious combination of decorations from both traditions. The elements of chinoiserie are dominated by the acanthus-leaf ornament, however, which was especially popular in Europe at just the time this mirror was made.[4] The plant's twisting and luxuriant pattern of growth fulfilled the Baroque period's desire for ornate and extravagant ornamentation. The acanthus designs by the French engraver Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682) and by his follower Paul Androuet Ducerceau (1630-1710)[5] were adapted and exaggerated by such ornamentists in the German-speaking world as the Viennese court cabinetmaker Johann Indau (1651-1690)[6] and the Augsburg masters Johann Unselt and Johann Conrad Reuttimann.[7] In Bohemia and parts of Silesia, acanthus decoration was taken to an unprecedented extreme in the altarpieces called Akanthusaltäre. These were conceived in the pure spirit of ornamental fantasy, as the rioting vegetation completely conceals the function of the objects it decorated.[8] In the entrance and banquet halls of grand town houses the acanthus crept across chairs, tables, and large armoires and up staircases and along wall paneling; in the form of stucco ornament it also decorated ceilings. The result was an impressive decorative unity that transmitted a feeling of lushness and prosperity, which reflected the owner's social status.[9] A rich and varied display of acanthus ornament covers the structural elements of the Museum's piece. Bold sprays on the sides break up its rectangular shape, and shorter tendrils frame the uprising crest, giving it that expressive contour so characteristic of the late Baroque style. Almost hidden in the leaves are small figures with symbolic meaning. Several putti hold the dragons' tails, and others face a double-headed eagle and a goat located in the crest. The eagle may refer to the Holy Roman Empire. The goat undoubtedly is the heraldic device of the mirror's first owner, but since the rampant goat is featured in the coat of arms of many noble families in Danzig, Pomerania, and Mecklenburg, this person has not been identified. Putti and doves, which flank the crest and peer out of the leaves, have symbolized love since antiquity, and doves bespeak constancy, as well. Thus, these winged boys and these birds are the chief attributes of Venus, goddess of erotic love.[10] This theme is extended by the small figures of a satyr and a satyress, who brazenly inhabit the big acanthus volutes. Such mythological creatures were regarded as symbols of decadence and sexual debauchery. Therefore, this radiant work of art may have been a wedding present whose purpose was both to delight and also to caution the recipient as to the danger of excess. Mirror frames carved--sculpted might be the better term--with such virtuosity are rare. A design for a looking glass by Andrea Brustolon (1660-1732), of about 1690, in the Museo Civico in Belluno shows a similar, intricately carved frame. An annotation on the drawing states that "the left side is devoted to the Arts and Sciences, the right to Valour, and it is crowned with an allegory of Love."[11] A print published in Graz, Austria, in 1679 by Matthias Echter (1653-1701/3) showing a related putti-populated acanthus frame with agitated openwork rinceaux may have inspired a similar carved wooden example in the Museo Correr in Venice.[12] An English frame in the collection of the marquess of Exeter is decorated with putti, floral elements, and acanthus foliage, and its carver was probably influenced by designs of the English wood-carver Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721).[13] An elaborate Dutch boxwood mirror frame of the late seventeenth century is preserved in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.[14] [Wolfram Koeppe 2006] Footnotes: [1] Olga Raggio in Olga Raggio, James Parker, Clare Le Corbeiller, Jessie McNab, Clare Vincent, and Alice M. Zrebiac. "French Decorative Arts during the Reign of Louis XIV, 1654-1715." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46, no. 4 (Spring 1989), p. 6, fig. 7. [2] Note in the archives of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum. For a Dutch example, see 64.101.1223, a painting frame adapted as mirror. See also Olga Raggio. "Rethinking the Collections: New Presentations of European Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Apollo 139 (January 1994), p. 12, fig. 9 (where she describes the mirror as from Danzig, following a file note by the present writer). [3] Lottlisa Behling. Der Danziger Dielenschrank und seine holländischen Vorläufer. Veröffentlichungen des Stadtmuseums und Gaumuseums für Kunsthandwerk zu Danzig. Danzig, 1942; Wolfram Koeppe. Die Lemmers-Danforth-Sammlung Wetzlar: Europäische Wohnkultur aus Renaissance und Barock. Heidelberg, 1992, p. 161, no. M91, p. 165, no. M94, color ill. p. 241; and Michael North and Frits Snapper. "The Baltic Trade and the Decline of the Dutch Economy in the Eighteenth Century." In Baltic Affairs: Relations between the Netherlands and North-Eastern Europe, 1500-1800; Essays, ed. J. Ph. S. Lemmink and Jacques S. A. M. van Koningsbrugge, pp. 263-86. Baltic Studies I. Nijmegen, 1990. [4] Ursula Reinhardt. "Acanthus." In The History of Decorative Arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, ed. Alain Gruber, pp. 93-155. Trans. John Goodman. New York, 1996, p. 130. [5] Rudolf Berliner and Gerhart Egger. Ornamentale Vorlageblätter des 15. bis 19. Jahrhunderts. 3 vols. 2nd ed. Munich, 1981, vol. 3, nos. 1105ff. and 1124ff. [6] Ibid., no. 1060ff. [7] Ursula Reinhardt. "Acanthus." In The History of Decorative Arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, ed. Alain Gruber, pp. 93-155. Trans. John Goodman. New York, 1996, pp. 130, 146. [8] Wolf-Dieter Hamperl and Aquilas Rohner. Böhmisch-Oberpfälzische Akanthusaltäre. Grosse Kunstführer 123. Munich, 1984. [9] Casimir Hermann Baer. Deutsche Wohn- & Festräume aus sechs Jahrhunderten. Bauformen-Bibliothek 6. Stuttgart, 1912, figs. 104, 105 (left). A splendid example of rich acanthus decoration is in the historic town hall of Gdansk. [10] James Hall. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. Rev. ed. New York, 1979, p. 10. [11] Hugh Honour. "The Seventeenth Century: Italy." In World Furniture: An Illustrated History, ed. Helena Hayward, pp. 66-71, New York, 1965, p. 71, fig. 224. [12] Ursula Reinhardt. "Acanthus." In The History of Decorative Arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, ed. Alain Gruber, pp. 93-155. Trans. John Goodman. New York, 1996, p. 130. [13] Anthony Coleridge. "The Seventeenth Century: England, 1660-1715." In World Furniture: An Illustrated History, ed. Helena Hayward, pp. 86-96. New York, 1965, p. 89, fig. 300. [14] Lieselotte Möller. "Ein holländischer Bilderrahmen aus dem siebzehnten Jahrhundert." Jahrbuch der Hambuger Kunstsammlungen 7 (1962), pp. 7-34.
Compartir
pinterestPinterest
twitterTwitter
facebookFacebook
emailEmail

Añadir a otro lightbox

Añadir a otro lightbox
add to lightbox print share
¿Ya tienes cuenta? Iniciar sesión
¿No tienes cuenta? Regístrate
Compra esta imagen. Selecciona el uso:
Cargando...
Título:
MIRROR
Descripción: Ver traducción automática
Mirror. Culture: German, Danzig (Gdansk). Dimensions: 75 x 64 x 4 in. (190.5 x 162.6 x 10.2 cm). Date: ca. 1680-1700. Large parade mirrors became increasingly fashionable throughout Europe during the Baroque period, and they were often conceived as part of an ensemble, with matching console tables and candlestands. This development was supported by technical advances that made it possible to produce larger plates of mirror glass and driven by the ambition of princes to imitate the magnificent Galerie des Glaces in the suite of state rooms at Versailles, created in 1681-84 by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) for Louis XIV of France.[1] At the end of the seventeenth century, goods and artistic ideas flowed through northeastern Europe along trade routes that connected English and Netherlandish ports with the cities along the Baltic Sea and points east. The latest fashions were eagerly received and copied as closely as local craftsmen could manage and local patrons could afford. This mirror was once believed to be of Dutch origin,[2] but its putti nestled among a tangle of jaggedly lobed acanthus leaves have proved to be very similar to works in wood by the cabinetmakers and virtuoso carvers of the independent town of Danzig, one of the most prosperous trade centers on the Baltic seacoast and a gateway to Russia. Large quantities of household goods, such as Dutch case furniture and English chairs,[3] were imported into Danzig during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as were luxury items like the popular Chinese blue-and-white porcelains. The grotesque dragon-monsters on this mirror, with their intriguingly intertwined necks and long tails, were obviously inspired by the decorations on the porcelain exported from East Asia. Dragons have been part of both Eastern and Western imagery for millennia, but seventeenth-century European craftsmen were probably unaware of their symbolism as water deities in the East and of Satan in the West. This frame offers an ingenious combination of decorations from both traditions. The elements of chinoiserie are dominated by the acanthus-leaf ornament, however, which was especially popular in Europe at just the time this mirror was made.[4] The plant's twisting and luxuriant pattern of growth fulfilled the Baroque period's desire for ornate and extravagant ornamentation. The acanthus designs by the French engraver Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682) and by his follower Paul Androuet Ducerceau (1630-1710)[5] were adapted and exaggerated by such ornamentists in the German-speaking world as the Viennese court cabinetmaker Johann Indau (1651-1690)[6] and the Augsburg masters Johann Unselt and Johann Conrad Reuttimann.[7] In Bohemia and parts of Silesia, acanthus decoration was taken to an unprecedented extreme in the altarpieces called Akanthusaltäre. These were conceived in the pure spirit of ornamental fantasy, as the rioting vegetation completely conceals the function of the objects it decorated.[8] In the entrance and banquet halls of grand town houses the acanthus crept across chairs, tables, and large armoires and up staircases and along wall paneling; in the form of stucco ornament it also decorated ceilings. The result was an impressive decorative unity that transmitted a feeling of lushness and prosperity, which reflected the owner's social status.[9] A rich and varied display of acanthus ornament covers the structural elements of the Museum's piece. Bold sprays on the sides break up its rectangular shape, and shorter tendrils frame the uprising crest, giving it that expressive contour so characteristic of the late Baroque style. Almost hidden in the leaves are small figures with symbolic meaning. Several putti hold the dragons' tails, and others face a double-headed eagle and a goat located in the crest. The eagle may refer to the Holy Roman Empire. The goat undoubtedly is the heraldic device of the mirror's first owner, but since the rampant goat is featured in the coat of arms of many noble families in Danzig, Pomerania, and Mecklenburg, this person has not been identified. Putti and doves, which flank the crest and peer out of the leaves, have symbolized love since antiquity, and doves bespeak constancy, as well. Thus, these winged boys and these birds are the chief attributes of Venus, goddess of erotic love.[10] This theme is extended by the small figures of a satyr and a satyress, who brazenly inhabit the big acanthus volutes. Such mythological creatures were regarded as symbols of decadence and sexual debauchery. Therefore, this radiant work of art may have been a wedding present whose purpose was both to delight and also to caution the recipient as to the danger of excess. Mirror frames carved--sculpted might be the better term--with such virtuosity are rare. A design for a looking glass by Andrea Brustolon (1660-1732), of about 1690, in the Museo Civico in Belluno shows a similar, intricately carved frame. An annotation on the drawing states that "the left side is devoted to the Arts and Sciences, the right to Valour, and it is crowned with an allegory of Love."[11] A print published in Graz, Austria, in 1679 by Matthias Echter (1653-1701/3) showing a related putti-populated acanthus frame with agitated openwork rinceaux may have inspired a similar carved wooden example in the Museo Correr in Venice.[12] An English frame in the collection of the marquess of Exeter is decorated with putti, floral elements, and acanthus foliage, and its carver was probably influenced by designs of the English wood-carver Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721).[13] An elaborate Dutch boxwood mirror frame of the late seventeenth century is preserved in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.[14] [Wolfram Koeppe 2006] Footnotes: [1] Olga Raggio in Olga Raggio, James Parker, Clare Le Corbeiller, Jessie McNab, Clare Vincent, and Alice M. Zrebiac. "French Decorative Arts during the Reign of Louis XIV, 1654-1715." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 46, no. 4 (Spring 1989), p. 6, fig. 7. [2] Note in the archives of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum. For a Dutch example, see 64.101.1223, a painting frame adapted as mirror. See also Olga Raggio. "Rethinking the Collections: New Presentations of European Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Apollo 139 (January 1994), p. 12, fig. 9 (where she describes the mirror as from Danzig, following a file note by the present writer). [3] Lottlisa Behling. Der Danziger Dielenschrank und seine holländischen Vorläufer. Veröffentlichungen des Stadtmuseums und Gaumuseums für Kunsthandwerk zu Danzig. Danzig, 1942; Wolfram Koeppe. Die Lemmers-Danforth-Sammlung Wetzlar: Europäische Wohnkultur aus Renaissance und Barock. Heidelberg, 1992, p. 161, no. M91, p. 165, no. M94, color ill. p. 241; and Michael North and Frits Snapper. "The Baltic Trade and the Decline of the Dutch Economy in the Eighteenth Century." In Baltic Affairs: Relations between the Netherlands and North-Eastern Europe, 1500-1800; Essays, ed. J. Ph. S. Lemmink and Jacques S. A. M. van Koningsbrugge, pp. 263-86. Baltic Studies I. Nijmegen, 1990. [4] Ursula Reinhardt. "Acanthus." In The History of Decorative Arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, ed. Alain Gruber, pp. 93-155. Trans. John Goodman. New York, 1996, p. 130. [5] Rudolf Berliner and Gerhart Egger. Ornamentale Vorlageblätter des 15. bis 19. Jahrhunderts. 3 vols. 2nd ed. Munich, 1981, vol. 3, nos. 1105ff. and 1124ff. [6] Ibid., no. 1060ff. [7] Ursula Reinhardt. "Acanthus." In The History of Decorative Arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, ed. Alain Gruber, pp. 93-155. Trans. John Goodman. New York, 1996, pp. 130, 146. [8] Wolf-Dieter Hamperl and Aquilas Rohner. Böhmisch-Oberpfälzische Akanthusaltäre. Grosse Kunstführer 123. Munich, 1984. [9] Casimir Hermann Baer. Deutsche Wohn- & Festräume aus sechs Jahrhunderten. Bauformen-Bibliothek 6. Stuttgart, 1912, figs. 104, 105 (left). A splendid example of rich acanthus decoration is in the historic town hall of Gdansk. [10] James Hall. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. Rev. ed. New York, 1979, p. 10. [11] Hugh Honour. "The Seventeenth Century: Italy." In World Furniture: An Illustrated History, ed. Helena Hayward, pp. 66-71, New York, 1965, p. 71, fig. 224. [12] Ursula Reinhardt. "Acanthus." In The History of Decorative Arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, ed. Alain Gruber, pp. 93-155. Trans. John Goodman. New York, 1996, p. 130. [13] Anthony Coleridge. "The Seventeenth Century: England, 1660-1715." In World Furniture: An Illustrated History, ed. Helena Hayward, pp. 86-96. New York, 1965, p. 89, fig. 300. [14] Lieselotte Möller. "Ein holländischer Bilderrahmen aus dem siebzehnten Jahrhundert." Jahrbuch der Hambuger Kunstsammlungen 7 (1962), pp. 7-34.
Técnica/material:
Dark-stained pine; replaced mirror glass
Museo:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Crédito:
Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Autorizaciones:
Modelo: No - Propiedad: No
¿Preguntas relacionadas con los derechos?
Tamaño imagen:
3625 x 3980 px | 41.3 MB
Tamaño impresión:
30.7 x 33.7 cm | 12.1 x 13.3 in (300 dpi)
Palabras clave: