Porcelain’s long road to Europe

An exhibition at the Byzantine and Christian Museum examines the history of a refined art

ALEXANDRA KOROXENIDIS

It is said, that when Marco Polo first saw objects made from Chinese porcelain during his travels in Asia he was stunned by their refined workmanship and compared their surface to the mother-of-pearl interior of a porcella shell.

Once it was discovered by the West, Oriental porcelain became a rare and expensive commodity in Europe. Alchemists in the royal courts attempted to find the formula for making porcelain as fine as that from Asia; it was not until the 17th century that they succeeded.

But the routes of trade between the East and West had already bred stylistic cross-influences and increased the production, distribution and consumption of ceramics and porcelain artifacts.

«Clay & Color,» which is the title of an alluring exhibition at the Byzantine and Christian Museum, maps out the art of porcelain in the East and the West during the period from the mid-15th to the early 19th century. It underlines the parallel trajectories and shows similarities and cross-influences. Around 150 items - which belong to the collections of ephorates and Greek museums - trace the development of ceramics in Greece while a second section focuses on the history of porcelain making outside Greece. The objects shown in this section belong to collection of the J. and D. Passas Collection, which the Byzantine and Christian Museum has on a long-term loan. (The exhibition is curated by archaeologist Maria Borboudaki and art historian Anna Papastergiou. Architect and museologist Lena Katsanika-Stefanou is in charge of the design.)

Post-Byzantine pottery produced in some of the most important ceramics workshops of Greece (including Thessaloniki, Veria, Trikala and Arta) are included in the exhibition's first portion. They are colored in earthy and green tones and designed with simple, Byzantine-inspired motifs. Compared to the pottery that was subsequently imported from Italy (in greater quantities to the Latin-ruled areas of Greece) and Asia Minor, they appear more minimal and perhaps a bit rougher.

Included in the exhibition are the so-called maiolica (the term for Italian tin-glazed earthenware that was produced from at least the 13th century) which are singled out for their full range of colors and large, figurative motifs. Among the finest objects are those produced in the Iznik workshops which in the early 16th century were known worldwide for the high-quality craftmanship of ceramicware. The blue and white motifs that are typical of early Iznik pottery make evident the influence of Chinese porcelain.

Chinese porcelain was also a major influence on 17th-century Dutch pottery. In the second part of the exhibition, the similarity between a vase in the style of the Chinese Yuan period porcelain and a pair of large, blue and white vases produced in Delft during the 17th century is striking.

In this second part of the exhibition, the figurines and objects produced in Germany's Meissen porcelain factory during the late 17th century are among the most important. By today's standards their rococco, highly decorative and often trompe-l'oeil style seems perhaps a bit kitsch, yet it should be remembered that Meissen was the first European porcelain factory. Meissen porcelain is singled out for the virtuosity of modeling, sense of movement, lively expression and extensive range of figures. It dominated the early 18th century style of pottery and was imitated by craftsmen across Europe.

In the mid-18th century the Meissen factory went into decline. The factory in Vincennes in France - which later moved to Sevres near Paris - supplanted its importance. Specimens of Sevres porcelain are among the finest in the «Clay & Color» exhibition.

Three-dimensional, sculptural pieces designed by artists such as Boucher became a typical and sought-after objects of the Sevres factory porcelain. This was the only factory in France to be allowed at the time to use the technique of gilding.

Sevres porcelain pieces were luxury objects that adorned the royal courts. Decorative vases and objects that were placed on banquet tables are among the most striking objects of the exhibition.

Stylistically, they are miles apart from the post-Byzantine ceramic plates and bowls or from the 18th century Canakkale jars that were exported en masse to Greece and the Orient.

Yet each of the above examples form important moments in the development of the art of porcelain. «Clay & Color» outlines this development through a variety of objects and in a clear and concise way.

«Clay & Color, European Porcelain of the J. and D. Passas Collection. Early Modern Ceramics in Greece» at the Byzantine and Christian Museum (22 Vasilissis Sofias, 210.721.1027) through February 17.