Chapter VII: Russia, Denmark, and Scandinavia

Scandinavian Pottery allied to Teutonic.--Hand-shaped
Vessels.--Primitive Kiln.--The Eighteenth Century.--St. Petersburg:
Its Porcelain.--Moscow.--Rorstrand.--Marieberg.--Modern Swedish
Faience.--Denmark.--Kiel.--Copenhagen.--Imitations of
Greek.--Copenhagen Porcelain.

The prehistoric pottery of the Scandinavians is, in its general character, allied to the Teutonic. It is curious to find Brongniart describing methods of shaping vessels by hand and burning them in a hole, with hay for fuel, as being still practised in Scandinavia, which it is quite probable have been transmitted from generation to generation for untold centuries. A dark-gray, calcareous, coarse paste and herring-bone decoration are met with in the vessels of the Stone Age. Others apparently of the same age were thrown on the wheel. The hut-shaped urn also occurs, and rare specimens are surmounted by a cover.

From these ancient times we may descend at once to the eighteenth century. In 1700 Peter the Great established some Delft potters at St. Petersburg, and a private workshop is mentioned as existing at Revel, but little is known of either. Peter the Great was also desirous of founding the porcelain industry within his dominions, but does not appear to have made any farther progress than bringing together a collection of Chinese porcelain with Russian decoration. In 1756 Elizabeth established a workshop near the capital, and some years later it was enlarged by Catherine II. About sixty years ago a number of Sèvres artists were imported, and from that time down to the present a very superior natural porcelain has been made. In 1756 an establishment, also for making natural porcelain, was founded near Moscow. The royal works made no contribution to the Centennial Exhibition, but some porcelain was exhibited of fine translucent paste and most extravagant price. Single cups and saucers, of fine body, but not characterized either by remarkable elegance of shape or beauty of decoration, were offered for $20. Some small plaques of majolica were also exhibited, of careful workmanship and tasteful ornamentation. The St. Petersburg porcelain made at the royal works is so high in price that it is said to be bought only for the Court. The Russian faience (Fig. 300) of the present time is decorated in styles altogether peculiar. It illustrates the ardent desire manifested for some years past throughout Russia to rear a distinctively Muscovite school of art. Natural porcelain has been made at Korzec, in Poland, since 1723.

The first Swedish faience factory was established at Rorstrand in 1727, and is still running; and in 1750 a second enterprise was set on foot at Marieberg, also in the neighborhood of Stockholm. The earlier Rorstrand wares resemble those of Delft. The decorations are in some cases delicate and well designed. More lately Sweden has produced a great variety of very beautiful faience. At the Centennial Exhibition we had an opportunity of making acquaintance with the Stockholm potters through works not less surprising than artistic. The imitations of Palissy’s _Rustiques figulines_ may be passed over. The most interesting pieces were of what was called “black northern faience,” the paste of which is a skilfully manipulated fine dark-brown clay. Many of the tea-sets and vases might easily have been mistaken for porcelain. A peculiar and very effective ornamentation consisted of blue, gilt, red, and white floral designs, the white enamel having a charming pearly appearance, and the blue studs resembling turquoises. One of the best specimens of this faience was a fireplace (Fig. 301) elaborately decorated with pale-blue and green, of delicate shades mingled with gilt. In both design and color this work was of itself sufficient to establish the character of Swedish ceramic art. It was accompanied by a pair of gigantic candelabra (Fig. 302) of a similar style. A quaintly formed vase was surrounded by medallions illustrative of the life of the old Vikings, from the time when the boy played with his father’s sword to that when the war-worn hero was laid in his grave. The design was excellent in conception and execution.

It is not improbable that the Swedish works may be involved in some such confusion as that which surrounded the early wares of Delft. Thus we find, in 1729, Rorstrand invested with the monopoly of making porcelain of delft, _i. e._, faience. In 1735 the privilege included _fayence fine et pate dure_, and in 1759 Dr. Ehrenrich was privileged to make porcelain and faience at Marieberg. Some of the Marieberg wares are in excellent taste, showing exquisitely modelled flowers and fruit in relief. It is singular that when, in 1780, the stock at Marieberg was sold off, some of it was disposed of in London under the name of delft. The works at Rorstrand closed in 1788. A kind of faience having a resemblance to the Swedish is manufactured near Christiania, in Norway (Fig. 303). It is made into table services, and the decoration partakes largely of the classical character so widely prevalent in the North.

Denmark was first known by the productions of Kiel, of which the thin paste is carefully prepared, and the paintings are highly commendable. The Greek imitations by Madame Ipsen, of Copenhagen, have been an agreeable surprise to Americans. Greek vases are imitated at this establishment with equal fidelity and beauty. The world appears never to tire of these forms, and the amateurs of America are to-day busily engaged in attempting to follow the potters of Denmark, England, Brazil, and we know not of what other countries. The widow Ipsen’s works are certainly well executed; and standing among them at the Centennial Exhibition, it was hard to realize that one was under the flag of Denmark. There were many there which we might have addressed, with Keats:

“What leaf-fringed legend haunts about your shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the vales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these?”

Both form and ornamentation were as purely Greek as those of any pottery unearthed by the antiquary. The biga, quadriga, scenes from the Iliad and mythology, appear just as they do on the works of the master potters of antiquity.

What has been said of the Ipsen factory might be applied with equal truth to the terra-cotta works of Wendrich & Sons, also of Copenhagen. Greek vessels of every description, and illustrating both ancient Greek and modern Danish styles of decoration, bear their name, and can be fully studied in such a collection as that of Mr. T. Schmidt, at the Danish Consulate, New York. The Danish imitators, in rivalling each other, have left most, if not all, of their competitors far behind, and the fact leads us to consider at greater length the circumstances which led a people apparently so distantly removed from the Greeks in genius, to follow them in this particular branch of art.

First among these was the weighty influence everywhere felt of the greatest of Danish artists, the sculptor Thorvaldsen. In him we have an instance of a single man turning, in a measure, the current of thought of an entire people. The titles of his works show the subjects which touch his artistic sympathy. Instead of the Scandinavian Odin, Thor, Baldur, Sigurd, Freia, Brunhild, or Gudrun, we have Apollo, Mercury, Venus, Hebe, Ganymede, and the heroes of the Iliad. Thorvaldsen was fascinated by the classic art of Greece, and it obliterated from his memory the mythology and legends of the North. While he gave us Hebe, it was reserved for his pupil and successor, Bissen, to give us the more truly national Valkyrie.

A second reason may have been the possession of a fine pale-buff clay admirably adapted for imitating the antiques of Greece. “In texture,” says Boutell, “it is so fine that it is capable of producing bas-relief medallions not larger than cameo gems, in which the figures have the sharpness of the gems themselves, with a surface of exquisite and silk-like softness.” On the one hand was the material, on the other the Thorvaldsen museum presenting “the noblest models for using it with the happiest effect.” The way to antiquity having thus been opened up, the Danish potters widened the range of their art, and found in Etruria and Egypt abundant models for imitation. Our classification must be of the most general character. Forms are reproduced with the most perfect fidelity, and the natural color of the buff clay changes through tints of warm brown and red to black, according to the original. The ornamentation is exceedingly varied. On some of the vases are subjects, taken from the pottery of Greece, painted in red upon a black ground, or in black upon buff, as we find them in Greece. These comprise the first class, and are in the strictest sense reproductions of the antique. In others, while the accessory decoration is Greek, the subjects are taken from the sculptures or bas-reliefs of Thorvaldsen or Flaxman. The “Triumph of Neptune” of the latter, and the many works of the former, being purely classical in conception and feeling, are in perfect harmony with the motive animating the artists of Denmark. There is a third class, in which the leading designs are essentially modern, and no strict rule is followed in accessory decoration. Thus, an amphora after the Greek, in form and accessories, has a central design taken from Thorvaldsen’s bas-relief “Autumn.” Egyptian amphoræ and other black-glazed vases are painted with naturally tinted bouquets of flowers, and thus in form and ground-color alone suggest the antique. At times the several styles are mingled. The colors most extensively used are red of several shades, gold, blue, white, buff, and black.

Leaving the southern antique, the Danish potters have also reproduced the prehistoric vessels of their native land in several simple and elegant forms. The originals were found in the tombs of the ancient Danes, and supply their descendants with an opportunity of perpetuating an art essentially Norse. The national side of Danish art is also seen in many of the terra-cotta statuettes and medallions. We pass over the copies of Thorvaldsen’s classical sculptures in order to reach the comical figures, full of humor, character, and feeling, of the elfish Nisser of the old Norsemen. The statuettes of these elves, and many quaint little figures of peasants, fishermen, and the like, are very attractive, both intrinsically and as reflections of Danish old-time superstition and Danish life. One of the Nisser appears upon the top of a flower-stand, and we meet with them again in the paintings upon porcelain.

A warm, satisfying quietude and an elevation of tone pervade these works in terra-cotta, which, added to their artistic merits, commend them to the student of household decoration, and insure a welcome from all who can appreciate their mingled softness and chaste dignity.

Taking Danish porcelain as a whole, it is both of good quality and tastefully decorated. The paste is pure, fine in texture, and carefully worked. In thin pieces, which approach very nearly the egg-shell of the East, the body is extremely translucent, and the glaze is smooth, hard, and even. This quality comes in fluted services, decorated under the glaze with delicate patterns, generally floral, in blue camaïeu. In thicker pieces greater strength is gained without any sacrifice of quality. Styles of decoration more peculiarly European occur in great variety, and illustrate the Danish artist’s capacity for handling the richer colors of the porcelain painter’s palette. Flowers, birds, insects, and landscapes are seen in medallions edged with gold; and cupids or Nisser, as grotesque as those in terra-cotta, are represented in every conceivable attitude. The flower pieces are drawn with feeling, and the coloring follows that of nature as closely as the medium will allow. In the figure pieces the attitudes are, as a rule, expressive, and suggestive of life and motion. Many of Thorvaldsen’s works, and some of those of Bissen and Jerichau, have been reproduced in biscuit statuettes and bas-relief medallions. While lacking the warmth of terra-cotta, the porcelain biscuit is sharp in outline and soft in color.

Porcelain was made at Copenhagen (Fig. 308) in 1760, where a Frenchman named Fournier established a workshop. In 1772 another establishment was founded, or that of Fournier was revived, by the Minister of Justice, Muller, assisted by a fugitive from Fürstenburg, named Von Lang. In 1775 it was taken into the hands of the Government, and is now called the Royal Porcelain Works. Many ornamental pieces and works in biscuit are issued of different decrees of merit.