We usually celebrate Mothers’ Day at Persimmon Restaurant in the National Gallery of Victoria. There’s more to this
occasion than the excellent food, service and ambience of the NGV moat and sculpture garden. It’s an added treat to
explore new and existing exhibitions. I found “Eighteenth-Century Porcelain Sculpture” which is staged around
the upper parameters overlooking the Great Hall and Leonard French stained glass ceiling. Timely, as I’ve been enjoying the delights of other 18th Century Baroque/Rococco visual and literary art (refer Dangerous Liaisons below).

Strolling the corridor, the exhibition tells the history of how this art form originated in Dresden, 1709, and grew in esteem and application. These sculptures were ground-breaking – a scientific, technical and cultural accomplishment. Popularity and importance rapidly spread through the courts.

The exhibition is housed in individual glass display areas, illustrating the various purposes of Eighteenth-Century
Porcelain Sculpture. Theatre, gesture, dance, children, religion, mythology, allegories, portraiture: porcelain sculpture characterised contemporary European social stratums and beliefs. It’s appeal as a medium reaffirmed its connection to high regard and status.

Yet again, the National Gallery of Victory tells a lovely cultural story. There’s an essay on the exhibition on http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/eighteenth-century-porcelain-sculpture (by Matthew Martin)

And, I highly recommend Persimmon Restaurant at NGV  https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/visit/dining

© porcelain sculptures National Gallery of Victoria
© text and photos tPRo/Pamela Reid