Beaker 1780 - 1795

Curator: This object before us, housed here at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a glass beaker, crafted between 1780 and 1795 by Johann Joseph Mildner. Editor: My first impression is the almost defiant plainness, oddly comforting and then interrupted by that incredibly detailed medallion… it gives this piece a rather stern disposition. Curator: "Stern" is interesting! The simplicity, or plainness as you put it, aligns beautifully with the Neoclassical movement, which rejected the over-the-top ornamentation of the Rococo period. Editor: Yes, but looking at the engraved glass and its textures, its sleek lines, I am immediately drawn to ideas of class and consumption. Was this commissioned? What would they have drunk from it? I wonder whose crest we see here, immortalized like this. Power sits at the table with every sip. Curator: Commissioning pieces like this was indeed a symbol of status during that period. Consider it a personalized trophy! It speaks to the owner’s identity but also mirrors the burgeoning power of the bourgeoisie during the late 18th century. It’s a delicate object that tells us something solid and revealing. Editor: I can't shake the thought about visibility though - in all meanings. Transparency by design invites an almost voyeuristic observation of every mark, every tiny defect of use. But it also hides the class dynamics we have spoken about behind this idea of purity. Who sees themselves reflected back? And at what cost? Curator: That interplay of fragility and ostentation, public and private – so much of art is about that push and pull, right? In our lives, too. We're all trying to strike that balance, to decide which face, which truths we show… maybe that's why I find myself drawn to it, thinking I've had it in my own hand. Editor: Yes, maybe. We look for ourselves everywhere don't we, sometimes even where we really should be looking beyond? It all goes down with that imagined gulp, as potent a draught as history provides.