Sugarbowl with roses in a basket c. 1795

This sugar bowl with roses in a basket was crafted in porcelain by the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur. Its delicate ornamentation speaks volumes. The recurring motif here is the rose, a flower laden with symbolism across cultures and epochs. Roses often symbolize love, beauty, and transience, echoing sentiments found in ancient Greek myths and later Christian art, where they were linked to the Virgin Mary. Placed within a basket, the roses are domesticated. This act of containing nature in a vessel is reminiscent of early Renaissance paintings where gardens signify order. But consider, too, how roses appear in vanitas paintings. In these works, roses are symbols of fleeting beauty and the inevitability of decay. The sugar bowl transforms the rose into a symbol of pleasure and ephemerality, resonating with a collective longing for an ideal, a fleeting moment of perfection. This interplay between life and decay continues to engage us, revealing how symbols are never fixed but constantly renegotiated, in a dance across time.