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Russian Imperial Porcelain Manufacturer - XIX century
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At the beginning of the XIX century the porcelain manufactured by the
Lomonosov Porcelain Factory was considered to be the most perfect in
Europe featuring the unity of style and exquisite taste. Later on the
factory's masters continued surprising the world with the major
achievements in the porcelain production and painting techniques,
while creating the wonderful bunches of porcelain flowers or drawing
on the porcelain the copies of the famous pictures of European
painters taken from the Hermitage collection.
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XVIII century · XIX century · XX century · XXI century |
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CZAR PORCELAIN
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A vase from the set "Gurievsky", 1809 -1815. Designed by S. Pimenov. Porcelain, over-glaze painting , goldening. |
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Russian ampire, Alexander I Historical period in the reign of Nicholas I, Alexander II and Alexander III
In the reign of Alexander I (1801-1825) the factory was managed by Count D.Guriev, confidential representative of the Emperor. With him, a great re-organization of the factory started and continued under the guidance of F.Gottenberger, Professor of Technology, Geneva University. To attract the best home and foreign masters, Guriev didn't save money. S.Pimenov, Professor of the Academy of Arts, one of the outstanding masters of his time, was appointed to head the sculpture chamber.
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To implement the ampire style at the factory, the best painters of the Sevre porcelian manufacture were invited. However, the Russian ampire porcelain essentially differed from the Sevre one which was considered to be the standard of the art achievements in Europe that time. The Russan porcelian was the mapping of national themes and plots in art, rather than glorified the Emperor's deeds. E.g., the Gurievskii set celebrating the victory of Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812 had become the ode to Russian people. This war inspired the creation of a series of the so-called war plates showing soldiers and officers in the uniforms of different kinds of troops. Widespread was also the portraiture displaying the crowned characters, famous persons and, particularly, celebrated military heroes.
In the time of Alexander I till the end of the 1860s, vases played a particular part in the factory manufacture. Gold became one of the favourite decoration materials. Paintings mainly depicted everyday life and battles. The second after vases were palace sets. In the periods of Alexander and Nicholas reignings (1825 - 1855) , the sets for almost all the Petersburg residences, all in different styles, were manufactured, with the Russian style manifesting itself among others. Based on the design of F.Solntsev, archeologist and expert in Russian antiquities, the sets were manufactured for the Bol'shoi Kremlevskii Palace in Moscow and for Great Duke Konstantin Nicholaievich
Masterly decoration was characteristic of the Nicholas porcelain. Depicted on vases were the chefs-d'euvres of outstanding old masters, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Murillo and others, mainly, from the Hermitage collection.The copies were characterized by an accuracy and thinness of dotted lines.The spectrum of colours, purity and brilliance of paints were adecuate in a full measure to an original. Portrait, icon and miniature painting on vases and plates had also received development. The factory priority in porcelain painting was marked by the diplomas of the World exhibitions in London, Paris and Vienna.
In 1844, a 100-year anniversary of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, there was founded a museum added by the things from the storages of the Winter palace (the decision to manufacture all the things in two copies, one for the court and the second for the museum, was made in the period of Alexander III ).
In contrast to the predecessors, Alexander II (1855 - 1881) did not show his personal interest in the factory. In the 70s the porcelain output decreased, only the gifts to the Court in celebration of Easter and Christman survived that was customary as far back as Paul I period. The factory continued working mainly to enrich the palace storages by the sets. The set sizes were less, decoration became much modest. With all the diversity in forms , those were mainly the copies of old European and Oriental ceramics. There appeared the idea of closing "the useless and unprofitable" enterprise.
Thanks to Alexander III (1881 - 1894), the factory was saved: "The Sovereign likes the Emperial Porcelain Factory to be put in the best conditions, both technical and art, in order it could be worthy of the Emperor's name and be an example for all private manufacturers in this field of industry". The factory started their work on manufacturing large sets, "Koronatsionnyi" and that on the themes of Raphael paintings in Vatican, which design was corrected by the Emperor personally. The art course of the factory was strongly affected by the tastes and bents of the Emperor himself. He prefered Chinese and Japanese vases, terracota, coloured glazes, under-glaze painting , which came into fashion under the influence of Copenhagen King's manufacture and also because the Emperor's wife Maria Fyodorovna was Dannish Princess.
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