Five Picks from the New Galleries for European Design

At 4,500 square feet, the sleek Barozzi Veiga–designed space will accommodate more than 300 works highlighting the wide range of economic, social, and technological forces that shaped European design from 1600 to 1900. From the latest acquisitions to loans from private collections, the objects you’ll find in these galleries were all designed with European patrons in mind, though their creators and influences span beyond Europe to Asia and the Americas as well.

In anticipation of the galleries’ opening on July 11, five members of our Applied Arts of Europe staff shine a spotlight on five works to look for in this inaugural display.

A Chair with a Secret Behind It

Jonathan Tavares, Amy and Paul Carbone Curator

One of the more recent acquisitions for the new Eloise W. Martin Galleries is an ebony and ivory chair produced in the 1690s on the Coromandel Coast of India, likely for a merchant with the British East India Company. I was compelled by this chair initially because of its transcultural nature as a hybrid object that merges European armchair design with indigenous Indian carved motifs. It is one of three known in this ambitious style, with twist-turned legs punctuated with a trail of vinelike ivory and a raked back. Two imaginative dragon or serpent heads (reminiscent of the Hindu deities known as Naga) with long scrolling tongues form the armrest. Under these are two musket-bearing European soldiers, a seemingly subversive caricature encapsulating the tensions of British colonial power that was in its beginnings at the time the chair was made.

But what has seized my imagination more personally, as an amateur woodworker and carver, is that the back of the crest rail has an inked-in preparatory drawing for carving the back of the winged mermaids seen on the front. You can even see where the carver began to stab-in, or incise, some of these lines before using a chisel or gauge to work it in relief. It is as if the merchant said, “Stop—the back can be left uncarved.” And there it is frozen in time, the process of making the chair revealed.

A Vase that Inspires Wonder

Kit Maxwell, Samuel and M. Patricia Grober Curator

This exquisite porcelain vase, about the size of a melon, is one of the earliest and largest produced by the Saint-Cloud Porcelain Manufactory. Located just outside Paris, the factory was the first in Europe to produce a pioneering and commercially viable type of porcelain in the early 1690s. This French porcelain is known as “soft paste,” distinguishing it from Asian (and later European) porcelains, which were made with kaolin clay and known as “hard paste.” 

The vase’s creamy porcelain body, covered in a transparent glaze, is utterly beguiling, and it’s easy to appreciate the wonder and delight this new material inspired in European consumers. Its inky blue and white palette deliberately evokes the aesthetic of imported Chinese porcelain, which was then very fashionable among the European aristocracy. Its decorative motifs, however, are indebted to the French court style, particularly the ornamental designs of engraver Jacques Androuet du Cerceau. 

This vase represents both a moment of extraordinary technical achievement in Europe and a confident expression of French design sensibility. It is displayed in a striking installation of blue-and-white ceramics within a new space dedicated to the Art Institute’s significant collection of European porcelain and pottery.

A Hungry Rabbit That Serves Soup

Madeleine Hazelwood, Collection Manager

This tureen, which takes the form of a life-sized rabbit calmly munching on a lettuce leaf with a snail perched on the side, is an example of the trompe l’oeil (deceive the eye) ceramics popular in 18th-century formal dinner settings. The Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory made tureens not only in the form of rabbits but also vegetables and birds that were noted for their remarkable realism. Twenty-five variations of this type of rabbit tureen are known, and no two are exactly the same.

In addition to being cute, this tureen is one of the earlier additions to the Art Institute’s holdings of English ceramics. As collection manager for Applied Arts of Europe, I am responsible for researching the acquisition history of objects in the department’s collection. The donors of this tureen, Emma B. Hodge and Jene E. Bell, donated a substantial collection of American and English porcelain and earthenware to the Art Institute in 1912 in memory of their mother, Amelia Blanxius. The collection continued to grow as more household wares were given by the sisters and others. This tureen in particular was donated in 1915 and has been delighting museum visitors—and museum staff—for the past 110 years.  

A Grotto with Figures of Glass

Mairead Horton, Research Associate

Made of glass, paper, shells, sand, and other materials, this miniature grotto reminds me of the dioramas I made for homework in elementary school, right down its painted backdrops. With scenes ranging from the biblical Annunciation and Nativity to a boy in a vineyard and a group of shepherds playing music to their flock, it was assembled by an unknown craftsperson in 18th-century France. The figures within the grotto are all made of glass that was shaped through the process of lampworking. This technique flourished in Nevers after Venetian glassworkers emigrated to the area in the 16th century. 

The small glass sculptures, known as verre de Nevers, began as a small metal armature around which glass rods—softened by the flame of a lamp—were twisted and shaped into form. The resulting figures might stand on their own, or they could be assembled into tableaux like the grotto here. The grotto’s varying scenes demonstrate the wide range of these glass creations: Religious subjects were prevalent, but so too were secular figurines, from actors and courtiers to shepherds and hunters. Two dozen of these figurines are displayed alongside the grotto in the new gallery. In addition to reminding me of my childhood dioramas, I love the grotto for its charm and humor and its reminder that close looking is often rewarded by unexpected delight.

A Cabinet That Tells a Tale

Ellenor Alcorn, Chair and Eloise W. Martin Curator

The appeal of William Burges’s painted wood cabinet is immediate; at first glance we can sense that the series of painted scenes in the gothic arches tell a story that has some humor. The format is reminiscent of manuscript painting or medieval stained glass, but the saint whose life is represented is the fictive and medieval Saint Bacchus. 

Enabled by his consumption of wine, Bacchus—who wears a pink tunic and a crown of grape leaves—is shown as a compassionate healer and, finally, a martyr. Far from being a religious tale, the witty narrative is purely secular, and we read it in much the same way we might read a graphic novel. Burges, a renowned Victorian architect and designer, was beguiled by all things medieval; on this cabinet he tells a pseudo-Christian story with tongue in cheek.

Find these works—and hundreds more—when the redesigned Eloise W. Martin Galleries open to the public on July 11.

Topics

• Exhibitions
• Staff Picks
• European Design, pre-1900