Plate (one of a pair) 1730 - 1745

Editor: Looking at this plate, created around 1730-1745, we see a striking decorative-art piece attributed to Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer. It's porcelain with what looks like gold engraving. I’m really taken by the monochrome flower arrangement, its formality feels luxurious, but also slightly…rigid. What do you see in this piece? Curator: This plate immediately speaks to me about the evolving social function of porcelain during the 18th century. No longer merely utilitarian, it became a vehicle for displaying wealth and status. Note the choice of material – porcelain itself, and the expensive gold engraving. It signals a specific kind of consumption and display of artisanal labor. How do you think the flowers represented here, might tie into its intended use and reception? Editor: That's a great point! Perhaps the flowers represent some specific interest or the plate's owner or commissioner? I hadn't considered the cost of production contributing to the plate's 'message' so overtly. Curator: Exactly. The choice of a seemingly 'simple' floral design actually conceals complex negotiations of taste, labor, and the very nature of artistic skill. It blurs lines, as does all decorative art, between what is 'high art' and craft. Think about how this challenges those distinctions, inviting us to reconsider the value we place on different forms of making. Do you see the division still present today? Editor: Absolutely! It makes me wonder about the hierarchy even within the craft world and who gets recognition versus whose labor remains invisible. Curator: Precisely. Focusing on the material reality of objects like this plate reveals those power dynamics. Editor: Thanks, I now perceive this gilded plate through a new lens of material consideration and social meaning. Curator: And I can feel that I need to keep questioning such works by viewing them through the eyes of the beholder, regardless of my own bias.