Conference on the Start of Academic Preparations for the Exhibition
300 Years of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur in 2018 at the MAK
As the official start of academic preparations for the anniversary exhibition 300 Years of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur in 2018 at the MAK, on 15 and 16 October 2015 a symposium will take place at the MAK FORUM which will identify and present current topics and problems of porcelain research on the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur.
Since its founding, the MAK has preserved the estate of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur, which closed in 1864, and continues to be a center of porcelain research. The only extensive exhibitions of this kind on Viennese porcelain took place at the museum in 1904 and 1970. The catalogs published as part of these exhibitions remain standard references on the subject to this day. From June to October 2018, a major exhibition at the MAK will examine the founding and history of the second-oldest European porcelain manufacturer, which took place after the imperial privilege to produce porcelain in Vienna was awarded to Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier in 1718.
The working hypothesis of the exhibition concept posits that the founding of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur in 1718 was a result of the transfer of culture between Asia and Europe. Due to the discovery of the secret of porcelain production by Johann Böttger, porcelain went from being a luxury imported good from China and Japan to the preferred European material for fine tableware. Only through exchanges with the other porcelain manufacturers in Europe after the founding of the Meissen porcelain factory in 1708 was the factory in Vienna, which became a purveyor to the imperial court in 1744, able to develop into a significant European manufacturer. The style and taste of products from the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur continued to set standards in its early years and over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries.
A modern analysis of the importance of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur must therefore reevaluate the history of the factory throughout the period of its existence against the background of the manufacturers in Meissen, Nymphenburg, Berlin, Frankenthal, Doccia, and Sèvres. This will ensure a historical and critical assessment of the aesthetic achievements and cultural importance of the manufacturer in Vienna from 1718 to 1864 and beyond in its continued influence as a model for later producers up to its refounding as the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur Augarten in 1923.
International porcelain experts and historians will discuss selected topics in the symposium, with contributions ranging from porcelain production in Vienna to the various areas of Viennese porcelain and the history of collecting Viennese porcelain in the past and today. Various facets of the factory’s relationship to other porcelain manufacturers in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries will also be covered.
Academic conception of the symposium:
Rainald Franz, Curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
Welcome and introduction: purpose and goal of the symposium
Rainald Franz, curator, 300 Years of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur; curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
10:45 a.m.
Prints from the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur at the MAK
Ulrike Scholda, art historian and research associate at the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection and at Patrick Kovacs Kunsthandel, Vienna
11:15 a.m.
“En public” to “en retirado”: dining ceremonial at the Viennese court in the first half of the 18th century
Michael Pölzl, FWF project contributor, Austrian Institute of Historical Research, Vienna
11:45 a.m.
Vienna, Florence and Turin: the Du Paquier manufactory and its influence on early Italian porcelain (in English)
Andreina d’Agliano, curator, porcelain expert and researcher, Turin
12:15 p.m.
Lunch break
1:30 p.m.
Looking at Du Paquier-period Vienna porcelain with Meissen eyes: some thoughts on avenues of contrast and comparison (in English)
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, art historian, curator, and lecturer, New York
2 p.m.
The Du Paquier and Meissen porcelain manufactories
Katharina Hantschmann, head curator for ceramics, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich
2:30 p.m.
The travels of an arcanist, Joseph Jacob Ringler (in English)
Errol Manners, E & H Manners, London
3 p.m.
From Vienna to Munich: The modeler Josef Ponhauser and the painter Andreas Oettner in Neudeck
Alfred Ziffer, art historian, vice president of the Gesellschaft der Keramikfreunde e. V., and editor of the magazine Keramos, Munich
3:30 p.m.
The development of prices for Viennese porcelain at the Dorotheum in Vienna from 1990 to 2014
Ursula Rohringer, expert on glass and porcelain at the Dorotheum, Vienna
4 p.m.
Closing discussion
Followed by a tour of the MAK Permanent Collection with a focus on Viennese porcelain (MAK DESIGN LAB, Dubsky room, Zwettler centerpiece, Biedermeier room) with Rainald Franz
“Looking the portrait in the eyes”: toward a complex view of imperial busts in Viennese bisque porcelain
Annette Ahrens, expert on porcelain as well as historical and present-day table culture, Vienna
10:30 a.m.
Portrait busts in Viennese porcelain
Stefan Schnöll, art historian, Vienna
110 a.m.
Viennese porcelain figures in the 18th century as contemporary witnesses
Elisabeth Sturm, Galerie C. Bednarczyk, Vienna
11:30 a.m.
Flower acrostics from the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur
Waltraud Neuwirth, art historian, curator, and expert on Viennese porcelain, Vienna
12 noon
The “Hülfswerk von Engelhardtszell” and its impact, 1798–1809+
Michael Macek, cultural manager, musicologist, and theater scholar; research associate, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection, Vienna
12:30 p.m.
Lunch break
2 p.m.
“This specimen appears to be of Venetian origin.” The learned collector as museum director: Emanuele d’Azeglio and his Viennese porcelain from the Du Paquier manufactory
Claudia Lehner-Jobst, curator of the Strasser glass collection, Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck, and the Augarten Porcelain Museum; author and consultant, Vienna
Cristina Maritano, curator for decorative arts, Palazzo Madama, Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Turin
2:30 p.m.
“The inexhaustible object”: Besides sensual pleasure, can collecting Viennese porcelain still be intellectually stimulating and enriching today?
Philipp A. Revertera, curator and collector of Viennese porcelain; forest manager, Scheifling (Styria)
3 p.m.
The Viennese porcelain scene around 1904: porcelain collections in Vienna in the 20th century as a social phenomenon in light of provenance research
Leonhard Weidinger, historian and provenance researcher at the MAK commissioned by the Commission for Provenance Research, and multimedia producer
3:30 p.m.
Closing discussion, outlook
All lectures are held in German, unless stated otherwise.
300 Years of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur in 2018 at the MAK
As the official start of academic preparations for the anniversary exhibition 300 Years of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur in 2018 at the MAK, on 15 and 16 October 2015 a symposium will take place at the MAK FORUM which will identify and present current topics and problems of porcelain research on the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur.
Since its founding, the MAK has preserved the estate of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur, which closed in 1864, and continues to be a center of porcelain research. The only extensive exhibitions of this kind on Viennese porcelain took place at the museum in 1904 and 1970. The catalogs published as part of these exhibitions remain standard references on the subject to this day. From June to October 2018, a major exhibition at the MAK will examine the founding and history of the second-oldest European porcelain manufacturer, which took place after the imperial privilege to produce porcelain in Vienna was awarded to Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier in 1718.
The working hypothesis of the exhibition concept posits that the founding of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur in 1718 was a result of the transfer of culture between Asia and Europe. Due to the discovery of the secret of porcelain production by Johann Böttger, porcelain went from being a luxury imported good from China and Japan to the preferred European material for fine tableware. Only through exchanges with the other porcelain manufacturers in Europe after the founding of the Meissen porcelain factory in 1708 was the factory in Vienna, which became a purveyor to the imperial court in 1744, able to develop into a significant European manufacturer. The style and taste of products from the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur continued to set standards in its early years and over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries.
A modern analysis of the importance of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur must therefore reevaluate the history of the factory throughout the period of its existence against the background of the manufacturers in Meissen, Nymphenburg, Berlin, Frankenthal, Doccia, and Sèvres. This will ensure a historical and critical assessment of the aesthetic achievements and cultural importance of the manufacturer in Vienna from 1718 to 1864 and beyond in its continued influence as a model for later producers up to its refounding as the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur Augarten in 1923.
International porcelain experts and historians will discuss selected topics in the symposium, with contributions ranging from porcelain production in Vienna to the various areas of Viennese porcelain and the history of collecting Viennese porcelain in the past and today. Various facets of the factory’s relationship to other porcelain manufacturers in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries will also be covered.
Academic conception of the symposium:
Rainald Franz, Curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
Thu, 15 Oct 2015
10:15 a.m.Welcome and introduction: purpose and goal of the symposium
Rainald Franz, curator, 300 Years of the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur; curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
10:45 a.m.
Prints from the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur at the MAK
Ulrike Scholda, art historian and research associate at the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection and at Patrick Kovacs Kunsthandel, Vienna
11:15 a.m.
“En public” to “en retirado”: dining ceremonial at the Viennese court in the first half of the 18th century
Michael Pölzl, FWF project contributor, Austrian Institute of Historical Research, Vienna
11:45 a.m.
Vienna, Florence and Turin: the Du Paquier manufactory and its influence on early Italian porcelain (in English)
Andreina d’Agliano, curator, porcelain expert and researcher, Turin
12:15 p.m.
Lunch break
1:30 p.m.
Looking at Du Paquier-period Vienna porcelain with Meissen eyes: some thoughts on avenues of contrast and comparison (in English)
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, art historian, curator, and lecturer, New York
2 p.m.
The Du Paquier and Meissen porcelain manufactories
Katharina Hantschmann, head curator for ceramics, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich
2:30 p.m.
The travels of an arcanist, Joseph Jacob Ringler (in English)
Errol Manners, E & H Manners, London
3 p.m.
From Vienna to Munich: The modeler Josef Ponhauser and the painter Andreas Oettner in Neudeck
Alfred Ziffer, art historian, vice president of the Gesellschaft der Keramikfreunde e. V., and editor of the magazine Keramos, Munich
3:30 p.m.
The development of prices for Viennese porcelain at the Dorotheum in Vienna from 1990 to 2014
Ursula Rohringer, expert on glass and porcelain at the Dorotheum, Vienna
4 p.m.
Closing discussion
Followed by a tour of the MAK Permanent Collection with a focus on Viennese porcelain (MAK DESIGN LAB, Dubsky room, Zwettler centerpiece, Biedermeier room) with Rainald Franz
Fri, 16 Oct 2015
10 a.m.“Looking the portrait in the eyes”: toward a complex view of imperial busts in Viennese bisque porcelain
Annette Ahrens, expert on porcelain as well as historical and present-day table culture, Vienna
10:30 a.m.
Portrait busts in Viennese porcelain
Stefan Schnöll, art historian, Vienna
110 a.m.
Viennese porcelain figures in the 18th century as contemporary witnesses
Elisabeth Sturm, Galerie C. Bednarczyk, Vienna
11:30 a.m.
Flower acrostics from the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur
Waltraud Neuwirth, art historian, curator, and expert on Viennese porcelain, Vienna
12 noon
The “Hülfswerk von Engelhardtszell” and its impact, 1798–1809+
Michael Macek, cultural manager, musicologist, and theater scholar; research associate, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection, Vienna
12:30 p.m.
Lunch break
2 p.m.
“This specimen appears to be of Venetian origin.” The learned collector as museum director: Emanuele d’Azeglio and his Viennese porcelain from the Du Paquier manufactory
Claudia Lehner-Jobst, curator of the Strasser glass collection, Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck, and the Augarten Porcelain Museum; author and consultant, Vienna
Cristina Maritano, curator for decorative arts, Palazzo Madama, Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Turin
2:30 p.m.
“The inexhaustible object”: Besides sensual pleasure, can collecting Viennese porcelain still be intellectually stimulating and enriching today?
Philipp A. Revertera, curator and collector of Viennese porcelain; forest manager, Scheifling (Styria)
3 p.m.
The Viennese porcelain scene around 1904: porcelain collections in Vienna in the 20th century as a social phenomenon in light of provenance research
Leonhard Weidinger, historian and provenance researcher at the MAK commissioned by the Commission for Provenance Research, and multimedia producer
3:30 p.m.
Closing discussion, outlook
All lectures are held in German, unless stated otherwise.
Kindly supported by
Symposium
Thu, 15 Oct 2015, 10:15 a.m.–5 p.m.Fri, 16 Oct 2015, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
All lectures are held in German, unless stated otherwise.
