Design for Three Vases 1765 - 1790

Curator: This is a design for three vases, a pencil drawing created between 1765 and 1790 by an anonymous artist. It's part of the collection here at the Met. Editor: Wow, it feels incredibly light, almost like a whisper of an idea on paper. A really elegant daydream. Curator: The work exemplifies Neoclassical principles. Note the emphasis on symmetry and the restrained ornamentation. The artist's focus on pure form is evident in the clean, precise lines and geometric shapes. Editor: Right, but there's also a certain playfulness in the variety of shapes, wouldn't you say? It feels like a kind of proto-industrial design. Like they're exploring variations on a theme for mass production... in a world that hadn't quite grasped mass production yet! Curator: That tension you perceive arises from the era itself. We see the waning influence of Rococo meeting the rise of industrial aspirations through these simplified forms stripped of excessive detail. Note the pencil strokes themselves—minimal hatching to suggest volume, allowing the underlying structure to prevail. Editor: I love how the sketches also contain notes on colors that the vases might be painted – it’s like having a sneak peek behind the creative process of deciding not only on forms but also colors, for functional, yet sophisticated household objects. Curator: Exactly. The written notations reinforce this functional aspect within its artistic execution, indicating a design intended for tangible realization, contrasting the pure abstraction we sometimes see in contemporaneous drawings. Editor: And for me, these vases act as little time capsules of aspiration. The yearning for order and elegance during an era teetering on revolution. Curator: Precisely. The beauty of revisiting these artifacts lies in interpreting that unique synthesis of societal ambition embedded within each perfectly balanced curve and meticulously rendered line. Editor: Well, I leave this sketch feeling more inspired than I thought possible, just imagining bringing these graceful ideas back into our world.