Plate 1797 - 1800

Curator: Simplicity, right? This Plate from around 1797 to 1800, found here at the Metropolitan Museum. It's quite grounding, isn't it? Editor: I have to say, seeing it here…it just looks so cold and austere. Almost metallic in its austerity. It's interesting that something made to be used—ceramics, of all things—comes off so bleak in this depiction. Curator: Well, consider what "ceramic" even means in practice—clay transformed through intense heat and labor, molded for daily use. This object had purpose. What did its maker's life look like? The social conditions that made them able to craft it. I wonder if they saw beauty in this form. Editor: And I think the simplicity actually heightens that human connection. What hands shaped it? How many meals were served on its surface? Each mark, each subtle imperfection…those whispers are where the emotion is. Curator: Whispers made real by production methods too. It's like the embodiment of the material itself taking on a life through function. That is always going to tell us as much, if not more, than pure decoration. Editor: Precisely, but here, this Plate really does reveal the stark contrast between utilitarian object and art object, something removed from practical use into pure aesthetics, or history at least. A melancholic history to me. Curator: Maybe it is. The interesting thing about holding this object is realizing its initial purpose wasn’t contemplation. So that leaves a lot of unanswered questions of where it belongs in the artistic spectrum. Editor: The way materials and makers mediate lives then and now—I agree that is where the crux is. This "decorative art" can be so deeply moving for what we ascribe to it now that was perhaps unspoken then. Curator: Yes, the unburdening or elevation from "tool" to time capsule, each tells a story about our human connection. Editor: Thank you for illuminating. This simple object gives so much pause and consideration to even how we might define utility.