MARVELLOUS SCIENCE
PASSION FOR PORCELAIN IN BAROQUE VIENNA EDITED BY STEPHAN KOJA WITH THE COLLABORATION OF CLAUDIA LEHNER-JOBST AND IRIS YVONNE WAGNER
CONTENTS 9 A Mysterious Material Baroque Vienna and its Porcelain Manufactory STEPHAN KOJA 17 B etwixt Marvel and Science The Du Paquier Porcelain Manufactory in Vienna CLAUDIA LEHNER-JOBST 42 Sculptural Works in Porcelain CLAUDIA LEHNER-JOBST 47 Travel, Discoveries and Experiments IRIS YVONNE WAGNER 55 T he Economic Policy of the Princes of Liechtenstein from 1600 to 1750 between Tradition and Innovation ARTHUR STÖGMANN 68 Lucky Prizes in Porcelain CLAUDIA LEHNER-JOBST 73 S hining, Light-Retentive, Fragile On the connection between porcelain and court elites SAMUEL WITTWER 87 C hinese and Japanese Porcelain in the Liechtenstein Collections Fashionable Luxuries from the East ELINE VAN DEN BERG 106 Two Japanese Beauties ELINE VAN DEN BERG 109 C hinoiserie, Vienna, and the Du Paquier Porcelain Imaginary IRIS MOON 124 Porcelain for Whom? ELINE VAN DEN BERG 129 ‘ Sauffen wir uns gleich zu tode, so geschiehts doch nach der Mode’ Chocolate, tea and coffee and their tumultuous arrival in European everyday life MARGRET RIBBERT 146 A Tea, Coffee and Chocolate Service for the Cardinal CRISTINA MARITANO 151 The Art of Baroque Dining ANNETTE AHRENS 163 List of exhibits 199 Literature and sources 207 Images and picture credits
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9 ◄ Detail from cat. 77 A MYSTERIOUS MATERIAL BAROQUE VIENNA AND ITS PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY STEPHAN KOJA Hardly any other material reflects the aesthetic and zeitgeist of the eighteenth century as porcelain does. And almost no other porcelain manufactory in Europe embodied the spirit of the city in which it brought forth its creations in such a fascinating manner as did Du Paquier. From 1683, following centuries of conflict, once the threat of Ottoman expansion that had endangered the very existence of the Empire had been finally averted, Vienna and the Austrian Crown Lands saw all energies being devoted to the work of reconstruction and economic development. These endeavours were underpinned by the nobility, who in the spirit of mercantilism maximized the yields of their agricultural estates, developed innovative production techniques and opened up new fields of business. As a result, towns and cities in particular experienced a huge economic upturn which resulted in a veritable building boom. Edifices of hitherto unseen magnificence arose, asserting the political and social aspirations of the individuals who had commissioned them. The age was also marked by a desire for encyclopaedic knowledge and a deeper understanding of the physical world. The consequence was ambitious alchemistic research, sponsored or even personally undertaken by the aristocracy itself – not a few Viennese palaces had their own laboratories and furnaces for such investigations and experiments. The new prosperity
10 among the upper echelons of society fostered a refining of elite lifestyle culture. Expanding trade relations with East Asia and the New World brought luxury wares and new culinary delights to Europe, firing the elite with a passion for all things exotic. One particularly sought-after product was porcelain, of which there was no equivalent in Europe, and which with its noble delicacy and material quality was regarded as epitomizing China’s high level of civilization. As a result, efforts in Central Europe to uncover the secret of making this fascinating material became all the more intensive, eventually leading to the discovery of the formula for the ‘white gold’ in Dresden in 1708. It is thus hardly surprising that an entrepreneur like Claudius Innocentius du Paquier, spurred on by an age of burgeoning enterprise and encouraged by direct support from the emperor, spared no effort in setting up production of this precious and highly desirable commodity in Vienna. This exhibition paints a picture of multifarious and sometimes hazardous alchemistic experiments, of trade routes and cultural transfer, of the subtle role of diplomacy, of industrial espionage and ingenious invention, of ambition and entrepreneurial culture. It focuses deliberately on the period between 1718 and 1744 in which the second porcelain manufactory to be founded in Europe produced its wares under the management of du Paquier before being bought up and acquired for the Crown by Maria Theresa. Porcelain was the perfect material to express the spirit of aristocratic life and underscore aspirations to subtle elegance, as its possession both signified the accrual of social distinction and embodied increasing cultivation and the refinement of daily life. At the same time, in its sheen, costliness and even its fragility, it corresponded to the sensibility of the times and could be understood as a symbol of courtly society, as Samuel Wittwer explains so illuminatingly in his essay in the present volume. Detail from cat. 133
11 The imperial family, members of the high nobility and high-ranking ministers ordered services, commissioned individual pieces of porcelain as gifts, and sometimes even had ensembles made to decorate entire rooms. Scions of the Princely House of Liechtenstein were among the major patrons and supporters of the porcelain works established in immediate proximity to their garden palace in the Rossau quarter. Like so many other cities, Vienna too was seized by the ‘maladie de porcelaine’: Prince Joseph Wenzel I von Liechtenstein, for example, possessed a collection of almost three hundred items displayed in a magnificent porcelain cabinet so admired by Maria Theresa that she promptly commissioned a room to equal it at Schönbrunn Palace. What makes the creations of Du Paquier so exceptional is their ability to capture the special charm of Vienna at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The capital of the empire was even then a relatively cosmopolitan city and thus a melting-pot of the ideas, talent, and visual and cultural experiences of the people who met here and exchanged views in a plethora of different languages. At the Du Paquier works, all this fed into the creation of compositions whose playfulness, originality and delight in surprising effects demonstrate how enjoyable it must have been to gain access to undreamt-of new possibilities with this new material and at the same time to be unshackled from rigid stylistic expectations. At the same time, there was an ambitious desire to make porcelain that would surpass the wares of East Asia, as emphasized in the ‘Privilege’ or charter granted by the emperor to set up the manufactory: ‘... all kinds of finest porcelain, majolica and Indian wares, and such things as are made in East India and other foreign lands, with far more beautiful colours and embellishments and shapes’.1 The wealth of ideas was vast, and the manufactory developed a language of forms that effortlessly blended a specifically Viennese aesthetic sensibility with exotic influences, often 1 The Imperial Privilege of 27 May 1718, OeStA Wien, FHKA, NHK Bancale Akten NÖ 620, 27 May 1718, fol. 1 r.
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13 giving rise to striking combinations in playful and extravagant creations – for example, when carps, salamanders, lions, panthers and dragons served as knobs, handles, feet or simply decoration on their porcelain wares. The fact that the Du Paquier manufactory tended to concentrate on the making of elaborate single pieces rather than following the principle of serial production would seem to indicate that it aimed at repeatedly astonishing their clientele with ingenious creations. The inherent financial risk of this strategy was ultimately to lead to the enterprise falling deeply into debt. The burgeoning trade connections with the distant countries had also brought new beverages to Europe that soon became highly fashionable. Appreciated both for their agreeable taste and for their exoticism, they demanded vessels that expressed their distinctiveness. It was thus a serendipitous coincidence that European porcelain was invented at precisely this juncture, its material qualities making it particularly suited for the enjoyment of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. At the same time porcelain enabled these cups and small bowls to be made in shapes that ensured ease of use while also lending additional noblesse to the act of consumption. The Du Paquier manufactory made its mark here with sumptuously decorated trembleuses, intended for drinking hot chocolate first thing in the morning and served on a matching saucer furnished with a gallery to prevent the cup from tipping over. As well as vessels for hot beverages and dining and dessert wares, the new material was also used for a wide range of other objects: beer tankards, bottles for wine, schnapps and liqueurs, perfume bottles, snuff and tobacco boxes, writing utensils, clock cases, looking-glass frames, candlesticks, candelabras and chandeliers, boxes for packs of cards, walking cane handles and religious figures for private devotions. The manufactory decorated these objects with its opulent Laub- und Bandelwerk or with a profusion of European flowers seemingly scattered at random over the surface, a decor that became something of a Du Paquier trademark. These patterns have a graciousness and a natural charm suffused by lightheartedness. Nonetheless, the decoration could also be restrained, exquisite and thoroughly elegant, for example when monochrome schwarzlot painting was highlighted with sparing, carefully placed gold highlights, such as in the hunting service made for the Princes of Liechtenstein. As the triumph of porcelain in the eighteenth century led to it becoming more affordable and gradually spreading to ever wider reaches of society, European dining culture changed for good. Today porcelain is so ubiquitous that we hardly ever give it a thought. Yet in terms of hygiene and styles of living this material catapulted humanity into a new era. That it also became one of the most appealing and original forms of artistic media is in no small measure to the credit of the Du Paquier manufactory. My especial thanks for the realization of this exhibition project, which thematically and aesthetically goes to the heart of princely collecting and the spirit of Vienna in the Baroque era, are due to His Serene Highness Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein and His Serene Highness Hereditary Prince Alois von und zu Liechtenstein for their generous support, as well as to the public and private collections from Austria, Europe and the United States who have generously provided loans to the exhibition, above all to the MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, which has placed a large number of important objects at our disposal. I thank my co-curators Claudia Lehner-Jobst and Iris Yvonne Wagner, and the Princely Collections team, who have expedited the realization of this ambitious exhibition with the highest degree of professionalism, and the authors who have contributed to the catalogue, illuminating a wide variety of aspects afforded by this rich theme in their essays. Cordial thanks are also due to exhibition designer Marcus Lilge and Sandstein Verlag for the elegant presentation of the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue. ◄ Detail from cat. 56 Cat. 104 ►
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17 BETWIXT MARVEL AND SCIENCE THE DU PAQUIER PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY IN VIENNA CLAUDIA LEHNER-JOBST Now that the land had been successfully defended and the Ottomans had turned tail, lightness was to be the order of the day. The peace treaties concluded by Prince Eugene of Savoy- Carignan (1663–1736) affirmed mutual respect and recognition, betokened by exchange of ambassadors, symmetry in ceremonial, and the mutual bestowal of precious diplomatic gifts.1 When the Grand Ambassador of the imperial house was sent to Constantinople in 1719, he took with him a great array of gifts, all carefully selected in accordance with the habits and rank of their intended recipients; their very number gives us an idea of the hopes placed in the new era of peace and the prospects of economic and cultural advance. In April 1719, it was reported in Vienna, ‘several hundredweight of embossed silver in the form of such things as mirror frames have been shipped here from Augsburg and along with them still more precious objects will be taken to Turkey as gifts by the Imperial Grand Ambassador Count Virmont.’2 A little later they were followed by magnificent wares from the Vienna porcelain manufactory, which had been founded in the very year of the peace treaty of Passarowitz, 1718, with the same Count Damian Hugo von Virmont (1666–1722), formerly legate in Dresden, making a significant contribution to getting the new enterprise off to a successful start.3 The manufactory modellers and decorators had evidently received precise instructions concerning the preferences of the sultan and his court (fig. 1).4 In addition 1 Joseph Johann Adam I and Joseph Wenzel I von Liechtenstein were just two of a number of princes, some still young in years, who took part in Prince Eugene’s military campaigns and also shared his passion for art. 2 ‘einige Centner geschlagenes Silber/ als Spiegelrahmen etc. von Augsburg zu Wasser anhero geführet worden/so/ nebst mehr andern Kostbarkeiten/als Präsenten der Kaiserliche Groß-Bothschafter/Titl. Herr Graf von Virmont/ mit sich nach der Türkey nehmen werde.’ Wienerisches Diarium, no. 1636, 8 April 1719. In the autumn of that year, Count Damian Hugo von Virmont presented the sultan, the sultana, and various high-ranking office-holders with 108 magnificent silver objects, amongst which were mirrors over two metres high, coffee tables complete with all furnishings, sherbet bowls, and a dessert centrepiece. The silver gifts were described in a supplement to the report in the Wienerisches Diarium, no. 1679, 6 September 1719.
18 to supplying the diplomatic gifts, in 1719 the manufactory also made its first commercial exports: an archival record mentions that ‘whole batches’ of Vienna porcelain were dispatched to Hungary and Turkey.5 Conversely, fine horses and splendid items of display tableware were brought to Vienna for the emperor by the Ottoman grand ambassador, the seasoned polyglot diplomat Ibrahim Pasha, who shortly after was invited to be present at the public banquet held on 20 August 1719 to mark the marriage of Archduchess Maria Josepha (1699–1757) to the Saxon crown prince Friedrich August, which the ambassador attended incognito in a private box provided for him at the summer palace of Favorita. ‘OF ESPECIAL BEAUTY’ The new-won freedom laid the ground for forward-looking ideas, with the continuation of Absolutism proving no hindrance to progress as the more cosmopolitan nobility actively demonstrated their resolute concern to be à la moderne and thus absolutely up-to-date.6 The creations of the early Vienna manufactory – ‘of especial beauty’ (‘von sonderbarer Schönheit’) – seem to have been made in response to this mood, tailored to their noble patrons’ striving to be at the cutting edge of new trends. ‘Entirely new in their manner,’7 they clearly sprang from an irrepressible and constant flow of spontaneous fantasy and wit, created in quick succession without regard for any economic rationale. As one would expect from a recently developed material and given the high demands made by its arcane production technique, they are experimental in character and admittedly variable in their artistic level. They embody a happy co-existence of the scientifc and the marvellous. Owing to the paucity of archival evidence, the early history of the manufactory founded by Claudius Innocentius du Paquier (c. 1680–1751) can only be fathomed with a broad, lateral-thinking approach that takes account not only of its location, principal protagonists, and network of contacts and associations but also of the complex of various reasons why people were motivated to make, admire or possess porcelain. The new feeling of life in the imperial capital had first become evident in the form of architecture, in imposing edifices visible from afar. The fact that every new palace was a manifestation of personal taste and token of reliability was critical to the process in which the nobility, particularly the high nobility, established their urban presence in the vicinity of the Hofburg. Leading architects, painters and sculptors vied with one another in the building and decoration of seats of pleasure and noble independence, whether grand country houses or garden palaces outside Vienna’s city walls. Amongst the latter, the finest was the conspicuously Italianate palace of Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein (1657– 1712) in the suburb of Rossau (fig. 2). Conspicuous display, however, was no longer the sole priority. Within sight of the garden palace, on his estate, he created what he considered a model urban development; significantly named ‘Liechtenthal’, it offered entrepreneurs new conditions for pursuing their businesses. Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein (1611–1684), Johann Adam Andreas’s father, had once put into words what it meant to act with a conscious view to enduring effect, and to do so on the basis of a truly high-born mind, ‘the essence of which, however, should lie in being eager to know [curios] what things are beautiful, choice and artistic, worthy of loving, desiring and practising.’8 In Heinrich Zedler’s Universallexicon, ‘Curiosität’ is defined with a certain ambivalence. On the one hand it is equated with discontentment with the will of God; on the other hand, however, because all curiosity is a delight to the mind, it does possess a useful property in that it ‘awakens thoughts’. And at the end, early Enlightenment thought comes to the surface: ‘And thus, to consider this usefulness strengthens and justifies the curiosity of those who reflect and ponder with good progress, and who apply their minds to lighting upon perspicacious truths.’9 3 The treaty of Passarowitz (in Serbian Požarevac, then a village, now an administrative town south of Belgrade) brought the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War (1716– 1718, Austria’s sixth such war), to an end and brought the Habsburgs territorial gains that extended its south-east Balkan frontier as far as it was ever to reach. For a wealth of further material, see QhoD, digital scholarly edition of Habsburg- Ottoman diplomatic sources, Project 1, ‘The Grand Embassies of Damian Hugo von Virmont und Ibrahim Pasha (1719/ 1720)’, Insitute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Graz), https://qhod.net/ context:vipa, last accessed 13. 1. 2025. 4 Zelleke 2009 b, figs. 11.14, 11.16. 5 Johann Melchior Steinbrück to Christian Adam Anacker, secretary to the Saxon legation in Vienna, Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, Betriebsarchiv (IAf3, fol. 299), ill. in Neuwirth 2006, 15. 6 As Zedler’s Universallexikon puts it, ‘heutig und jetzig’, see Zedler 1731/54, pp. 385/728. 7 ‘von ganz neuer Façon’. Wienerisches Diarium, supplement to no. 61, 30 July 1729. 8 ‘dessen wehsenheit iedoch sein sollte, curios zu sein, was schenes, rares und kinstliches ist zu schatzen und zu lieben, zu verlangen und zu ieben’ Quoted from Haupt 1990, 115. 9 ‘Weil alle Curiosität den Verstand ergötzet ... sie erwecket Gedancken.’ ‘Und eben die Erwegung dieses Nutzens bekräfftiget und rechtfertiget die Curiosität derer, die mit gutem Fortgange nachdencken, und scharfsinnige Wahrheiten zu erfinden trachten.’ Zedler 1731/1754, vol. 24, s. v. ‘Curiosität’, pp. 99 –100/ 172–174. ◄ Fig. 1 Du Paquier Manufactory, Vienna Rosewater ewer and basin, c. 1735 Porcelain, overglaze enamel colours, gilding Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Inv. 16/773
19 MATERIAL OF THE FUTURE The arts of the early eighteenth century were profoundly concerned with the matter of appearance and reality. The promotion of the sciences was considered one of the princely virtues. Nobles travelled for study purposes to England and the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces, where scientific works could be published free of the constraints of censorship. The best-known Vienna palaces not only had well-ordered libraries but were also fitted out with laboratories. Clocks, too, as instruments for measuring time, had a special place in the princely acquisition of knowledge and were given fine cases, some of which are the most fantastical creations of the Du Paquier manufactory. ‘Curiosität’ was in any case definitely at work when Claudius Innocentius du Paquier, with a small group of financiers and specialists, began preparing his extraordinary project of establishing a porcelain manufactory. For centuries, East Asian porcelain had counted as one of the wondrously strange things whose production was assigned to the realm of magic. Attempts to imitate the translucent white material, fragile and yet hard enough to be extremely durable, had hitherto only yielded unsatisfactory results that came nowhere near the real thing. The European discovery of how to make porcelain was thus one of the eighteenth century’s greatest sensations. It was a triumph of science and in cultural terms a leap into the future. But the aura of mystery remained, leaving its mark on how the material was perceived, exciting human desire for it, and thus raising its monetary value (fig. 3). With the advent of European hard-paste porcelain, a medium had become available that not only possessed outstanding practical qualities but also had an aesthetic potential that enabled it to develop independently of the rules of contemporary art. Fig. 2 Christian Hilfgott Brand View towards Vienna over the suburb of Rossau with the Liechtenstein Garden Palace and its Belvedere, 1735 Oil on canvas Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover Inv. PAM 766
Fig. 3 Du Paquier Manufactory, Vienna Teapot with silver mounts c. 1720/1725 Porcelain, silver mounts LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. PO 2789
21 FREE TRADE In June 1717, with the goal of promoting the development of a mercantilist Austrian economy, Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) had assured, ‘each and every one of Our loyal inhabitants and subjects’ of his gracious favour and had called for the improvement of the existing manufactories and the establishment of new ones in the Habsburg hereditary lands. To this end, the emperor promised to give ‘masters at home and from abroad intent upon assisting in this aim, at their request, advantageous privileges and freedoms’, and his imperial protection; in addition, the trade routes by sea and on land were to be developed and, with the express involvement of the Court War Council, made more secure. The goal was ‘free trade’, as a salutary measure for ‘Us and the common weal’.10 That the year 1710 had seen the foundation of the Meissen porcelain manufactory as the first of its kind in Europe was an inspiration to follow in Saxony’s footsteps.11 As imperial legate in Saxony, Damian Hugo von Virmont provided invaluable assistance in recruiting suitable collaborators for the Vienna project. Firstly, he set his sights on the ‘art worker’ Christoph Conrad Hunger from Thuringia, who appeared to be a seasoned goldsmith, gilder and enameller. Most importantly, Hunger claimed, Böttger had divulged to him the secret recipe for porcelain paste. On 29 September 1717, he and an experienced collaborator of Böttger’s named Johann George Mehlhorn were rewarded by Augustus the Strong with three hundred thalers ‘on account of their new invention, namely, of applying the colour blue to porcelain’, prior to which the elector-king had been presented with a small bowl decorated in this manner.12 By this time or very soon after, the diplomat Virmont had been successful with Hunger, who was in Vienna before October was out. Du Paquier initially found Hunger a useful collaborator, as he knew all the most important craftsmen in Saxony, with whom he corresponded concerning materials and where they were obtained from. At Meissen, progress in the development of colours was slow. Although du Paquier succeeded in overtaking Meissen in this respect, for the moment he had a more fundamental problem to solve, namely, the composition of the porcelain paste. And time was running out, because in order to be granted a charter for producing porcelain he had to be able to show that he was capable of doing so. According to Hunger, the two of them searched in vain for the indispensable fine white kaolin for more than a year around Vienna and in Hungary and Bohemia, before finally finding their ‘china clay’ in the ecclesiastical principality of Passau. Virmont’s next success with personnel was Just Friedrich Tiemann’s arrival in Vienna in August 1718 with drawings of the kilns, an invaluable asset that du Paquier purchased for a mere fifty thalers.13 On 6 May 1718 Hunger wrote to Mehlhorn asking him to leave Saxony with one or two Meissen workers and a quantity of cobalt blue in time to arrive in Vienna within three weeks, and to pick up a small barrel of the Passau kaolin on the way. The three weeks’ notice he gave (although Mehlhorn in fact lost his nerve and stayed in Meissen) was calculated to coincide with the projected date of the Privilege, which Emperor Charles VI duly signed at the palace of Laxenburg on 27 May 1718. There are no records to tell us whether Emperor Charles VI was surprised by the idea of a porcelain manufactory in Vienna, or whether he was not perhaps personally involved on account of the forthcoming dynastic alliance with Saxony and the news of the progress made at Meissen with the ‘Sächsische Porcellain’; however, the Privilege does mention that du Paquier had presented the matter for consideration several times before.14 In any case, the Privilege, which is preserved in the form of a copy covering five closely written pages, considers all specific aspects of the project, praising the symbiosis of ‘industry, art and science’ and commenting on matters ranging from the procurement of raw materials through to the risks involved, principally ‘danger and great expenses’.15 It is likely that all the technical matters mentioned in the Privilege echo elements in du Paquier’s application, which has not been preserved. The three partners named as ‘Mit-Consorten’ in the Privilege were: Christoph 10 ‘allen und jeden Unseren Getreuen Inwohnern und Unterthanen’/‘hierzu behilfflichen Auß- und inländischen Maistern auf ihr Anmelden gedeyliche Privilegia und Freyheiten’/‘freye commercium’/‘Uns/und dem gemeinen Weesen’. Facsimile of Charles VI’s decree on the promotion of commerce, entitled on the ‘Einricht-, Beförder- und Vermehrung des Commercii’, Vienna, 1717, in exh. cat. Vienna 1970, 12. 11 S ee the essay by Iris Yvonne Wagner in this volume, 41–48. 12 ‘Wegen der neuen Invention die Blaue Farbe auf das Porcellain zutragen’. Quoted from Rückert 1990, for Mehlhorn senior see vol. 2, 51, and for Hunger, vol. 10, 82. 13 Lehner-Jobst 2009, 158. 14 ‘ des mehreren vor- und angebracht habe’ From the Privilege of 27 May 1718, OeStA Wien FHKA, NHK Bancale Akten NÖ 620, fol. 1 r (copy of a later date). 15 ‘Fleiss, Kunst und Wissenschafft’/ ‘Gefahr und grosse Unkosten’. Ibid.
SCULPTURAL WORKS IN PORCELAIN CLAUDIA LEHNER-JOBST Fig. 1 Du Paquier Manufactory, Vienna Crucifix, c. 1730 The Cleveland Museum of Art, purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund Inv. 1997.185 42
With its sensitively modelled figure of Christ, this standing cross elevated on a splendidly ornate base is regarded as a masterpiece of early Vienna porcelain. The commission to model this unique sacred object can only have been entrusted to a sculptor of distinction, an artist who in collaboration with a painter and gilder from the manufactory knew how to exploit the qualities of porcelain as the final material for his design. Elaborating the details of the crucified figure with astonishing accuracy, the artist’s approach recalls that of an ivory carver or the finesse of a Florentine or French small bronze. Cast in moulds, the porcelain figure and its detailing are technically flawless. The outstretched finelimbed body was left white, except for the wounds, painted in precious pinkish-purple in the drastic naturalism of the Baroque, and the few touches in pale cobalt-blue wash on the mouth and feet of the dying man. Nonetheless, the real drama lies in the mute emotion of suffering and surrender expressed in the figure of Christ, shown here crucified with four nails. The very finest details are also rendered in the pain-racked yet dignified facial features that draw the concentrated attention of the beholder. Comparison with Giambologna’s Christ, which displays a similarly delicate form and subtle torsion (Liebieghaus, Frankfurt am Main), suggests that the master of the Vienna crucifix was familiar with the Florentine tradition. With its architectonic construction, bold voluted feet, and ornamental details picked out in purple and gold such as the acanthus leaves, lattice- like perforated cartouche panels, and scallop and palmette motifs, the base (fig. 2) echoes the clock cases made by the Du Paquier manufactory around 1730 (cat. 96). Stylistic parallels can also be found in contemporary models of altars and in furniture designs such as the torchères with Viennese Boulle work from the Princely Collections (fig. 3). The display face and two sides of the base have applied gilt bas-reliefs en miniature inspired by the works of Georg Raphael Donner (1693–1741) and his pupils from around the same time. Following the sequence of the events of the Passion, the left-hand panel depicts the Scourging of Christ, the front panel shows the Lamentation and on the righthand face is the Resurrection. This narrative will have combined with the graceful physique of the crucified Christ, in a format that does justice to porcelain as a material as well as to the purpose of the object, to make Christ’s suffering immediate to the individual contemplating it in the seclusion of a house chapel or before a personal altar in the private chambers of an aristocratic palace. In the Ordentlicher Catalogus of the Vienna porcelain lottery held on 17 March 1735, the prizes offered were described as ‘a standing crucifix of medium size, 150 florins’ and ‘a large very elaborate crucifix with gilding and painted in fine colours with the figures of Mary, St John and the Magdalene, 200 florins’. An account of the latter object was given by the Breslau scholar Johann Christian Kundmann in his publication of scientific novelties.1 Josef Folnesics and Edmund Wilhelm Braun mention a crucifix in the possession of the princes of Esterházy at Esterháza ‘on a base with polychrome Baroque decoration’.2 That was a place where the highest artistic standards held sway, as Johann Friedel writes of a visit he made there in his Briefe aus Wien an einen Freund in Berlin: ‘Here all objects are numerous and so striking that they must perforce make the greatest impression upon even the most insensate and negligent visitor.’3 1 Kundmann 1737, 640–641. 2 Folnesics/Braun 1907, 38–39. 3 Friedel 1783, 485. Detail from fig. 1 43
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47 TRAVEL, DISCOVERIES AND EXPERIMENTS IRIS YVONNE WAGNER By the time the Venetian merchant Marco Polo (1254–1324) described porcelain as tableware in the account of his epic journey to Asia, having very likely brought back examples of it in his luggage, it joined silk, precious stones and spices as one of the most sought-after imports from the Far East. As neither the constituent parts of the gleaming material nor how it was made were known in Europe, rising demand in the sixteenth and seventeenth century led to Chinese porcelain being produced and shipped westwards in prodigious quantities. At the same time, alchemical experiments were being undertaken in various locations across Europe including Venice, Florence, Rouen, Saint-Cloud and not least Meissen, with the ultimate aim of being able to produce this highly desirable commodity. Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony (1670–1733), better known as Augustus the Strong, was an avid collector of East Asian porcelain. It was under his reign that the first successful attempt at making hard-paste porcelain took place in Europe. During the early modern period, members of the high nobility played an important role as patrons not only in the fields of art, music, literature and architecture but also in the natural sciences, engaging scholars working and researching in the spheres of astrology, philosophy, alchemy and medicine. ◄ Detail from cat. 12
48 At the end of the seventeenth century, Count Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus (1651–1707) set about prospecting for minerals in the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) on the Saxon side of the border with Bohemia. There had been mining, metal production, metal-working and glass- making in these mountain ranges since the Middle Ages.1 Tschirnhaus succeeded in cutting unusually large burning glasses (fig. 1) and concave mirrors out of blocks of glass, using them to achieve temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius in order to conduct smelting experiments with various earths and minerals.2 After a time he was ordered by Augustus the Strong to oversee the alchemist and self-proclaimed maker of gold Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719), whom the elector had had imprisoned in the Albrechtsburg fortress at Meissen. Together with mining and metal-working experts from Freiberg, they performed experiments smelting various earths in specially built furnaces.3 In 1707, Böttger and Tschirnhaus, together with Pabst von Ohain, finally succeeded in firing red stoneware, afterwards known as Böttger stoneware (fig. 2). A few months later Böttger made his first successful attempt at firing a white translucent body from a mixture of white Colditz clay (a type of kaolin or ‘china clay’), Freiberg calcite, quartz and alabaster in his laboratory on the Jungfernbastei in Dresden.4 On 28 March 1709 he informed the Saxon court chancellery in writing of his success – thus marking the birth of European hard-paste porcelain.5 The manufactory at the Albrechtsburg in Meissen was founded on 6 June 1710. Böttger was appointed administrator and worked on improving his discovery, with the aim of increasing the purity of the body and perfecting the glaze. Eventually he realized that kaolin constituted the key component of the formula. The secret knowledge of the ingredients and firing of hard-paste porcelain subsequently arrived in Vienna.6 The driving force behind all these endeavours was the aim of increasing domestic production of wares through innovation and the establishing of manufactories, thus achieving the greatest possibly economy in production and reducing expensive imports.7 Fig. 1 Burning glass made at the Tschirnhaus glass works Dresden, c. 1700 Glass, ground; wood Technisches Museum Wien Inv. 10699 Fig. 2 Meissen Porcelain Manufactory Teapot with Laub- und Bandelwerk 1710/13 Böttger stoneware Private collection
49 THE PRINCES OF LIECHTENSTEIN AND ALCHEMY A love of experimentation and interest in alchemy can also be observed in the princely House of Liechtenstein. From his father Karl Eusebius, Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein asked for the gift of a book on alchemy by the early natural scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644), a follower of the physician and alchemist Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus, which he received with paternal guidance on its reading.8 Helmont coined the term ‘gas’ in derivation from the Greek ‘chaos’, and recognized carbon dioxide (‘gas sylvestris’) as a particular form of steam.9 In order to make this discovery he had to overcome the traditional notion of air being a uniform body or alchemical ‘element’. According to contemporary ideas, going back to Empedocles, there existed in the earthly sphere the four mutable elements of fire (fig. 3), water, earth and air. The celestial sphere was ruled by the ‘quinta essentia’, which Aristotle described as ‘ether’ – an element that differed from the earthly elements and was everlasting and unchanging. This was believed to permeate all things and was like fire without heat. All substances arose through the specific interaction of the three principles of sulphur, mercury and salt. The existence of gases was recognized, as for example in the carbon dioxide given off in beer-brewing, but not their essence as distinct substances.10 It was believed that through the action of certain physical powers, materials and substances could be transformed, or materials of lesser value neutralized in order to improve them with the principles of a higher-value material, thus imitating and accelerating nature’s processes of transmutation. Böttger had initially been kept prisoner by Augustus the Strong with the intention of producing gold (fig. 4).11 Many alchemists were bent on discovering the so-called philosopher’s stone that was not only supposed to enable base metal to be turned into precious metals but was also held to be a universal remedy. However, the method of its fabrication was a mystery, and the alchemical treatises, couched in cryptic or enigmatic language, fail to offer any precise descriptions of an approach to a solution. The book Wasserstein der Weisen (‘Philosopher’s Stone’) (cat. 8) in the Princely Collections is more of a theosophical work that includes the path to the lapis philosophorum in a process of spiritual purification. 1 As early as 1556 a copiously illustrated systematic description of mining and metallurgy in the Saxon Ore Mountains was published under the title De re metallica libri XII by the Chemnitz city physician Georgius Agricola (cat. 7). 2 In this connection, after lengthy efforts on his part, the Dresden court granted him state funds for the setting up of three glass works. 3 See Soukup 2007, 464–466. 4 Ibid. 5 Volke 2010, 40–43. 6 On this see the essay by Lehner-Jobst in the present volume, 17–39. 7 On this see the essay by Stögmann in the present volume, 55–67. 8 See Haupt 2012, 408–409, nos. 2411, 2412. 9 See Priesner 2011, 102. 10 Ibid. 11 H aving repeatedly failed to achieve any success in these endeavours, on Tschirnhaus’s advice Böttger concentrated on experiments to make porcelain. See Volke 2010, 37–38. On the part played by Tschirnhaus in the reinvention of the porcelain formula see ibid. 47–50. Fig. 3 Bartholomäus Spranger Allegory of Fire, c. 1600 Pen and ink in blue, blue wash, white highlights, on blue-toned paper LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. GR 940
50 In 1698 Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein ordered a microscope and a large burning glass from the Augsburg optician Cosmus Conrad Cuno, to be cut from glass made at the princely glass works at Feldsberg.12 As already mentioned, burning glasses were needed to create high temperatures for transmutation processes. The prince was also offered an arcanum or secret formula for transforming silver into gold.13 In January 1707, the prince’s steward Georg Anton von Fellner reported back on the result of a six-week experiment: ‘At the end of the sixth week, Sigmund took the phials out of the horse manure, mixed the material in them, so long as the colour had not changed, thoroughly with quicklime, put it into a retort and yesterday sublimated the whole over a very strong fire. But nothing except a liquor smelling of spirit of urine was produced; no mercury was to be seen at all. Furthermore, in the matter of what is to be done with the caput mortuum, I shall expect and await Your Serene Grace’s instruction.’14 The experiment had evidently failed, and the decision as to what was to be done with the ‘caput mortuum’, a by-product from the process of producing sulphuric acid, now lay with the prince. 12 See Haupt 2012, 667–8, nos. 2825, 2827. 13 Ibid., 727, no. 2918: ‘Eß befinden sich zwey artisten alhier, welche ein zimment* pulver haben, daß silber durch ein zimment in pures goldt zu transmitieren. Alle drey tag ist die arbeith vorbey, daß cento per cento uber alle unkosten abwürfft in drey tagen.’ (‘There are two artists here who have a Zimment [old unit of measurement] of powder, enough to transmute silver into gold. Every three days the work is completed, so that a hundred per cent of all costs are covered in three days.’) Fig. 4 Johann Friedrich Böttger Gold regulus, presumably 1713 Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Inv. F 389 Fig. 5 Silvered burning mirror from the laboratory of Franz Stephan of Lorraine, 1751 Bronze, silvered Technisches Museum Wien Inv. 10697
51 That not all experiments were successful is also attested in connection with the precious silvered burning mirror (fig. 5) from the estate of Emperor Franz I (Franz Stephan of Lorraine; 1708–1765) (fig. 6). In 1751 the emperor, together with Father Joseph Franz, attempted to smelt small diamonds into a single larger stone using this burning glass. However, the high temperatures resulted in the diamonds largely carbonizing. Costly as it was, the experiment nonetheless yielded the realization that diamonds consist of carbon. Alongside the rooms that housed his chancelleries, the monarch had a laboratory set up and equipped in his palace at Wallnerstrasse no. 3, the centre of his political, economic, scientific and artistic activities.15 In 1736, long before his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, the Duke of Lorraine acquired the seigneurial estates of Holitsch (Holíč) and Sassin (Šaštín) in the fertile plain of the River Morava from the heavily indebted Count Joseph Czobor. He chose Schloss Holitsch as a stately country seat in keeping with his rank, enlarging it and setting up model enterprises, including a faience manufactory. On relinquishing Lorraine in 1737, he succeeded to the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Medici line having died out after the death of Gian Gastone. 14 ‘ Bey außgang der 6. wochen hat der Sigmund die phiolen auß den roßmüst genohmen, die materia darinnen, so sich in der farb nicht verendert hat, mit lebendigen kalch wohl vermischet, in eine retorten gethan und gestern dan gantzen mit zimblich starken fewer übergetrieben. Eß ist aber nichts alß ein wie spiritus urinah riechendes waßer herübergangen, einiger Mercurius aber gar nicht zu sehen. Waß nun mit den caput mortuo ferner zu thun, werde ewer durch. gnadigsten befehl erwarten und verharre.’ Quoted from Haupt 2012, 868, no. 3088. 15 On this see Zedinger 2009, 26–28. Fig. 6 School of Martin van Meytens Portrait of Franz Stephan of Lorraine (1708–1765) 1745/65 Oil on canvas LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. GE 1741 Fig. 7 ► Carlo Ginori Manufactory, Doccia Modeller: Gaspero Bruschi (attr.), after a model by Giuseppe Piamontini Actaeon, 1748/55 Porcelain LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. PO 2294
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87 CHINESE AND JAPANESE PORCELAIN IN THE LIECHTENSTEIN COLLECTIONS FASHIONABLE LUXURIES FROM THE EAST ELINE VAN DEN BERG 1 Impey 1990, 24. ◄ Detail from fig. 15 ‘Just like lacquer cabinets, so Japanese porcelain became a standard requisite of a great house; and in both cases decoration and even furniture was adapted to display it’ 1
88 These words from an article by Oliver Impey in the 1994 exhibition catalogue Porcelain for Palaces vividly capture the frenzy for collecting Japanese porcelain that possessed the European elite around 1700. The Asian porcelain collection of the House of Liechtenstein is a good example of the phenomenon’s presence in Vienna. It shows that even though the Habsburgs were not (yet) actively involved in the European trade in Asian commodities, the Viennese nobility still found ways to get their hands on some of the finest pieces, which were being shipped predominantly by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the English East India Company (EIC).2 Porcelain of this kind and calibre was also a major source of inspiration for the production of Du Paquier porcelain. Fig. 1 Large jars with figures, plants and birds Japan, Arita, Edo period, c. 1670/1690 Porcelain, enamel colours LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. PO 2536
89 Up until the mid-seventeenth century, the only porcelain to be shipped to Europe was Chinese blue-and-white. Around this time, internal turmoil in China due to fall of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) greatly disrupted the export of porcelain and eventually also had a severe detrimental effect on the production in Jingdezhen, the main centre for porcelain manufacture. Since porcelain was in such high demand, the VOC switched its principal focus to Japan, where the Dutch were the sole European power allowed to trade with the Japanese, and this only from the artificial island of Deshima.3 Although the secret of porcelain manfuacture had only been discovered in Japan in the early seventeenth century, workshops quickly developed objects of the highest quality. The first shipments from Japan contained not only the familiar blue-and-white pieces, but also porcelain with vibrant polychrome decoration, which was a novelty for European customers and quickly gained popularity in high society. Arita, the main production centre of Japan, manufactured two main lines of porcelain: Imari and Kakiemon. An excellent example of the latter is a pair of large jars (missing their covers) decorated in the Kakiemon-style palette (fig. 1). In Europe, pieces such as these are now found almost exclusively in (former) noble collections such as the British Royal Collection, the Porzellansammlung in Dresden, which is essentially the former collection of Augustus the Strong (1670–1733), and the collection at Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin. The finest Kakiemon porcelain is characterized by a milky white body (nigoshide) decorated with overglaze enamels, as exemplified by an octagonal bowl with a decoration of the ‘three friends of winter’ (pine, bamboo and plum) in the Liechtenstein collection (fig. 2). This type of porcelain was expensive to produce, and each piece needed to be fired in its own separate protective fireclay case, or ‘saggar’. 2 The English East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) were established in 1600 and 1602 respectively. They soon became the dominant European trading powers present in Asia, superseding the Portuguese and the Spanish, who had held this position during the sixteenth century. 3 Deshima island was initially created by the Japanese for the Portuguese to trade from, and to restrict their movements on the mainland. In 1639, however, there was a general ban on European trading with Japan, with the one exception of the Dutch VOC, which was allowed to stay. Its employees were stationed on Deshima and had very little or no access to Japan itself. Fig. 2 Octagonal bowl with the Three Friends of Winter Japan, Arita, Edo period, c. 1670/1690 Porcelain, enamel colours LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. PO 1880
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91 Kakiemon porcelain appears to have been shipped to Europe by private traders, whose dealings are naturally not registered in the official documents of the East India Companies. As a result, there is no record of the European ports at which the porcelain arrived. In this period, only Dutch and Chinese merchants were allowed to trade with the Japanese, but it has been suggested that Kakiemon was mostly shipped by the latter, since the decoration was more to the taste of the Chinese, who however resold part of their stock to English merchants, which makes London a good candidate for Kakiemon porcelain’s port of arrival in Europe. And indeed, there are still many Kakiemon pieces in British historical collections, while there are almost none in the Dutch.4 As an additional factor, however, it must be noted that during the early eighteenth century quite a quantity of porcelain was sold from Dutch collections to European buyers, principally in France and England, which could also explain the lack of Kakiemon in the Netherlands. During this period, the Dutch economy had hit a slump, possibly causing families to sell pieces from their collections, which will of course have been eagerly snapped up by foreign buyers.5 To return to the jars, which are decorated on the body with rectangular panels divided by a floral ornament, the reserves show two East Asian-looking figures, one holding a fan and the other a parasol, in a landscape of rocks, plants and birds. The symmetry of the two figures standing on either side of the rock, the central placement of the bird and the depiction of the parasol are atypical of Japanese art, and the decoration was possibly inspired by a European example, such as Delftware or a drawing.6 While the Liechtenstein collection boasts many such interesting examples of Japanese porcelain, we will first look at some of its earlier, and thus Chinese, pieces of Asian porcelain. EARLY ASIAN PORCELAIN The Liechtenstein collection of Asian porcelain was very likely initiated well before the late seventeenth century, as suggested by the presence of several Chinese pieces from the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century. One noteworthy item is a large sixteenth-century celadon vase with a central decoration of lotus scrolls (fig. 3). Vases of this type were made in China from the fourteenth century onwards and were placed in temples. While celadon is rare in European historical collections, many examples are preserved at the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul, which holds the former collections of the Ottoman sultans. Pieces such as this one presumably also arrived in Europe via the Middle East, where Chinese celadon was very much in demand. In the late eighteenth century, a mount was added to the vase, which entailed cutting off the flared mouth so that the cover could be fitted on (unless the mouth had perhaps been damaged or had broken off earlier). Another early Chinese piece in the Liechtenstein porcelain collection is a cachepot dating to the Wanli period (1573–1620) with an ormolu (gilded bronze) mount (fig. 4). Originally this was a garden seat (zuodun) of the kind used in Chinese gardens and interiors. In Europe the original function would not have been known, which is perhaps why the object was cut in half and made into a cachepot (or perhaps two cachepots) fitted with an ormolu mount. It is not known how and when the vase and the cachepot arrived in the collection, but there is a possibility that they were acquired by or gifted to Prince Karl I von Liechtenstein (1569–1627), who was Obersthofmeister (head of the court household) to Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612) in Prague. The emperor was a passionate collector of Asian objects, as we know from an inventory of his Kunstkammer drawn up in 1607/1611 that is preserved in the Liechtenstein archives.7 It contains numerous references to porcelain mounted with gold and silver, which will very likely have been similar to pieces such as the ewer with a silver mount (inv. PO 2531) in the Liechtenstein collection. The inventory also makes reference to the translucency of the porcelain, which was indeed exactly what the material was admired for, in addition to its whiteness 4 The exception is Twickel Castle in the province of Overijssel. 5 Fitski 2011, 44, 46. 6 Fitski 2011, 22, 33. 7 Von anno 1607. Verzaichnus, was in der Röm. Kay. May. Kunstcammer gefunden worden, etc., drawn up in 1607 by Daniel Fröschl (1563–1613), with addenda up to 1611, LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna, inv. HS 130. Fig. 3 Large vase with lotus scrolls China, Longquan (porcelain) / Ignaz Joseph Würth, Vienna (mount) Ming dynasty, sixteenth century/ c. 1775/85 Porcelaneous stoneware, celadon, gilded bronze LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna Inv. PO 1848
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