Porcelain sculpture "Bruin, the Bear" - after Goethe
Porcelain sculpture "Bruin, the Bear" - after Goethe
Quick info
signed | porcelain | size 18 x 9 x 8 cm (h/w/d)
Detailed description
Porcelain sculpture "Bruin, the Bear" - after Goethe
The Human in Animal Form: Goethe's "Reynard the Fox"
"Then let us all his wisdom imitate/ Eschew the Evil and select the Good/
This moral points our tale, when understood. /The truth with fables hath the Poet mixed, That virtue in your hearts may be infixed/ And you who purchase and peruse this poem/ May fee the ways o'th' world, and learn to know 'em."
This is how Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's epic poem "Reynard the Fox" ends. It is an old story that was already told in the Middle Ages. Goethe turns it into a world panopticon with human weaknesses and vanities wrapped in animal shapes: There is the eponymous Reynard, who knows how to cunningly and shrewdly talk his way out of every situation. Other characters are the faithful but somewhat dull badger Grimbard, the eternally hungry bear Bruin and the wolf Isengrim, who, despite his superior strength, knows nothing to oppose the cunning of Reynard. And finally, there is the basically noble lion Nobel, who in the end allows himself to be compromised by his (gold) greed - they all have human traits.
Meissen porcelain artist Andreas Ehret, born in 1959, has turned them into an original porcelain series. "Porcelain," he says, "is a charismatic material, a challenge to animate it, to question it by bringing conflict into the forms." With this edition, he has succeeded in doing so. May the buyers of these figurines also be "taught daily by the course of the world".
Sculpture "Bruin, the Bear":
Size 18 x 9 x 8 cm (h/w/d), signed.
Producer: ars mundi Edition Max Büchner GmbH, Bödekerstraße 13, 30161 Hanover, Germany, [email protected]
Ceramic product made of kaolin, quartz, and feldspar.
Porcelain is formed by turning or pressing, and figurative objects are cast. Complex objects have to be cast in separated steps and sections, and then "assembled". After the moulding, the pieces are dried and undergo an initial firing at about 900°C. Next, the glaze will be applied and fired at temperatures between 1,240 °C and 1,445 °C. In renowned manufactories, the porcelain is painted by hand, with each colour being fired individually under strict temperature tolerances.
Porcelain was invented in China and became widespread in Europe from the 16th century onwards. The first European porcelain factory was founded in Meissen, Germany in 1710.
Other famous European porcelain factories include Fürstenberg, Höchst, Schwarzburger Werkstätten, Lladró, Nymphenburg, KPM, Augarten, Sèvres, Limoges, Royal Copenhagen, Worcester. Each factories label their products with their personal porcelain stamps to indicate their origin.
A plastic work of sculptural art made of wood, stone, ivory, bronze or other metals.
While sculptures made of wood, ivory, or stone are carved directly from the material block, in bronze casting, a working model is prepared at first. Usually, it is made of clay or other easily mouldable materials.
The prime time of sculpture after the Greek and Roman antiquity was the Renaissance. Impressionism gave a new impulse to the sculptural arts. Contemporary artists such as Jorg Immendorf, Andora, and Markus Lupertz also enriched sculptures with outstanding works.