Wednesday, April 19, 2017

18th-century European Objects

Jan Baptist Xavery
Nymph
1729
ivory
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jan Baptist Xavery
Satyr
1729
ivory
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jan Baptist Xavery
Johan Theodoor, Baron von Friesheim
1731
terracotta model for tomb effigy
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

"Neglected, she sat for entire mornings and afternoons upon the sofa, and life seemed to her like a little ditty whose last notes fade away even before it begins.  With a taken-for-grantedness that left nothing to be desired, he abandoned her to her unfulfilled assumptions.  To the extent that he was unassuming, she was anything but.  She was longing for something.  It took her many days to come to a realization on this account.  Finally it dawned on her that she wished to become bad, she no longer wanted to be pure, good and lovely.  Being bad would undoubtedly be far simpler, easier and more effortless that playing a solid, refined role.  Being good regardless of the circumstances  oh, how difficult this was proving to be.  And so she ran out of the house into the street.  The wind whistled, plucking at the trees, rain slapped against her cheeks, lights were shimmering in the dark.  She ran through the black of night and soon vanished into one of those bars that imply ugly assumptions about ladies who set foot in them.  For propriety's sake, let me leave her for the time being and content myself with expressing the wish that she return from this outing or detour into the unsavory realm of the sickly in the best of health.  And indeed this is just what came to pass a short time later.  I see her, to my satisfaction  though to be sure she is still somewhat haggard and suffers from all sorts of memories flocking about like will-o-the-wisps  breathing sighs of relief as she sits in a confidence-inspiring garret room.  A man who showed understanding for her errant ways and was at pains to cheer her took her pale hand gently in his and coaxed from her a weak smile with his attempts at courtesy.  She found herself well looked after.  Once more she became good.  This was no doubt what the course of things allowed and required of her." 

– from the episode As I was instructed by a book by Robert Walser, from the collection called Microscriptsoriginally composed in German during the 1920s, but unpublished until 1978 – translated by Susan Bernofsky and first published in English by New Directions in 2010

Sebastiano Cavina
Anatomical Figure (écorché)
1734
bronze
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

John Michael Rysbrack
Victory, or, Fame
1760
terracotta model for monument
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

John Michael Rysbrack
Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Earl of Strafford
ca. 1740
terracotta model for portrait statue
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Étienne-Simon Martin and Guillaume Martin
Figures carrying baskets of sugar-cane
1740s
painted bronze, silver
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
originally owned by Madame de Pompadour

Friedrich Elias Meyer
Personifications of Painting, Music & Sculpture
from the Berlin Dessert Service

1771-72
porcelain
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Anonymous Italian sculptor
Decorative Column or Pedestal
before 1787
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Clodion
Model for Music and Poetry
1774
terracotta
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Clodion
Infant Satyr with Owl
after 1780
terracotta
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Clodion
Nymph with Cupids
1780s
terracotta
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

China
Saucer with flower sprays
ca. 1700-1725
porcelaing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

workshop of Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Vase composed of ancient and modern fragments
late 18th century
marble
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg