Porcelain: another window on the neoclassical visual world

AbstractThis article surveys the European, and especially German, porcelain industry’s output of classicizing figurines between about 1740 and 1900 in order to comprehend what vision of the classics Europeans wished to bring into their homes. First made by Italians, classicizing figurines and cameos became a German (and English) specialty, and helped to knit together European luxury markets as well as to spread familiarity with classical iconography to northern and eastern climes. Made for aristocratic courtiers, the first pieces reflect a ‘libertine’ classicism; by about 1790, this style had largely been displaced by a more serious and exacting (but also cheaper!) ‘chaste’ classicism exemplified by Jasperware and white biscuit porcelains. After 1815, industry conditions and the disinterest of new consumers led to the freezing of classicizing porcelains in this latter, ‘chaste’ idiom. As a widely-owned household good by the mid-nineteenth century, porcelain provided an important, if narrow, form of classical education that has left its mark on the tourist industry, and on our perceptions of the classical world.