Examining the influence of Japanese culture on the form and decoration of the early Meissen porcelain objects
Examining the influence of Japanese culture on the form and decoration of the early Meissen porcelain objects

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this research is to examine how Japanese porcelain interacted with the European porcelain invented in the early eighteenth century Germany, creating a novel type of utility wares and decorative objects which conquered not only the markets but also the courts of Europe. Exploring how Japanese porcelain forms and motifs created narratives after being introduced by the Portuguese missionaries and the Dutch merchants in the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, the researcher will try to point out the importance of Japanese culture in a worldwide context, and its contribution to the growing interest of the European porcelain makers, artists and traders. He will also focus on the profound interest in Japanese culture, restricted to the area of Japanese ceramics and particularly porcelain wares, exploring, at the same time, when and how Japanese objects surpassed the Chinese products which had been very popular on European markets a long time before. Other questions to be answered are about the remaking of small Japanese-like figures which contributed to the Europe’s fashion frenzy for some other types of hard-paste porcelain objects such as the large-scale statues and figurines, initially made in the 1720’s and 1730’s, but also the Imari and Kakiemon style wares made for the pleasure of Augustus II the Strong, the Elector of Saxony.

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