Plate (one of two) 1755 - 1765

Curator: This is a porcelain plate crafted between 1755 and 1765 by the Meissen Manufactory. It currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: The subdued sepia tones create a strangely muted effect; there's a restrained elegance here. But something about the composition feels off-balance, as if the image struggles to fill the circular space. Curator: I see that imbalance as reflective of the Rococo period, a move away from the symmetrical rigidity of previous eras. There’s a striving for naturalism, a captured moment of leisure, perhaps tinged with melancholy as we see implied with the lantern or clock. Editor: The glaze seems incredibly smooth and uniform. And what do you make of the borders, this elaborate, stylized vegetal decoration around the rim? Is it mere ornamentation or something more symbolic? Curator: The borders, typical of the time, act as a frame drawing our eye inward towards the central vignette. This romantic tableau—the two figures in elegant attire and their casual repose upon what seems like natural rock, the tiny clock they are observing, this signifies something of the societal structures. Time is on their hands and they're watching the clock to tell them how to spend their leisure time and who with. The rococo loved layering such detail. It’s as though the artist is speaking volumes within this constrained setting. Editor: So, the entire plate is orchestrated for both aesthetic delight and perhaps more cryptic symbolic messaging—like a silent story being presented. Curator: Exactly. It’s about crafting a miniature world where refined societal nuances are displayed upon what ultimately ends up as something purely practical to be utilized during dinner service. Even then, the object becomes the setting and framing to present and be social with those around the dinner table. Editor: It does make you wonder about the conversations and dramas played out across these surfaces back then. Curator: And the silent stories it holds. I like pondering that question of who was sitting around the table discussing the objects laid out on the tabletop around them. Editor: Indeed, the silence does speak. Thanks for shining a light.