Pair of vases with covers 1745 - 1765

Curator: William Littler crafted these ceramic vases with covers sometime between 1745 and 1765. They represent the Rococo style and are currently held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: Well, hello there, understated elegance. It gives me a zen garden vibe, almost muted yet still somehow luminescent. You can almost feel the smoothness, can't you? Curator: Absolutely. The understated quality speaks volumes about the class structures prevalent during their creation. Decorative arts like these often mirrored the social hierarchies and power dynamics of the era. Only certain wealthy individuals had the resources to enjoy and show off artwork like these vases. Editor: Show off? Nah. It seems much more introverted than showy, it's very...subtle, like a whisper rather than a shout, a conversation that only happens within very particular light. I feel like they would sit on the desk of someone lost in contemplation... Do you think they used to hold anything inside? Curator: Certainly. It's very likely that they were used for things like perfumes, dry flowers, or as ornamental pieces to signify affluence. Now, while these vases might exude that meditative zen as you call it, we need to acknowledge their role within systems of wealth and power. They reinforce exclusivity based on social status. Editor: But can’t we appreciate the artistic intention? The almost obsessive desire to reach...transcendence? Even something as banal as material possessions can hint at a deep well of existential anxieties and hidden desires. The glaze has that mesmerizing texture that makes you want to touch it and hold onto it for just a moment. You feel understood. Curator: Artistic intent doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Context shapes perception. Recognizing their function in solidifying the power of elites isn't about dismissing their artistry. Instead, it is about offering a thorough reading. We could explore, say, the ways the labor that produced these vases may have been hidden from the very elites consuming them, contributing to class discrepancies and so forth. Editor: Yes, yes, of course. The thing is I think the tension you are pointing out is kind of exactly what is interesting, right? Like an irresistible pull towards an illusion. In this moment, what matters is their presence, silent witnesses...it is as if their silent strength can be ours, too, maybe? Curator: Perhaps their silence allows us to think more deeply about those silences—about the history these vases represent, not only about who got to appreciate such elegance, but who couldn’t. Editor: And maybe in reflecting, we, ourselves, get just a tiny drop closer to reaching a silence that might truly resonate.