Basket 18th century

Editor: Here we have an 18th-century porcelain basket, created by the Meissen Manufactory, currently residing at The Met. The intricacy is incredible! The way the light plays through the woven structure is almost hypnotic. What do you make of it? Curator: Intricate is definitely the word! When I look at it, I think about courtly life in the 18th century, all powdered wigs and perfumed gestures. Imagine this filled with sugared almonds or perhaps candied violets! Rococo was all about playful elegance, a rebellion against the stricter Baroque era, wasn't it? It is difficult to imagine the number of hours of painstaking labor that went into it. How does it strike *your* sensibilities? Editor: Well, aside from making me crave sweets, it speaks to incredible skill, right? But I also see… fragility. Something so meticulously crafted, yet so easily broken. It feels like a commentary on the fleeting nature of beauty, maybe? Curator: Precisely! Porcelain was known as "white gold" back then – highly prized, delicate, and representative of wealth and refinement. That tension between the exquisite and the ephemeral is quintessentially Rococo. Notice the floral details and the playful bird-shaped handles… It's designed to delight, isn’t it? Editor: Definitely a feast for the eyes! And I see what you mean about the Rococo aesthetic – it’s so ornate, but still light and airy. I initially saw "fragility" but perhaps its intentional and performative to the courtly society, that is putting it on display and celebrating it anyway. Curator: Exactly, perhaps also it serves to question us that while fragile it still endured, something about human intervention preserving the artwork in time and space so we may see it centuries after its confection. I am learning with your sensibilities as much. What a delightful thing to ponder! Editor: This has been illuminating! I’ll definitely look at Rococo art differently from now on. It's more than just decoration; it's a reflection of an era. Curator: Precisely, everything contains echoes of a dialogue, now we see ourselves adding a new one to it, so onward!