The Dream of a King: The Japanese Palace in Dresden

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$18 General / $15 Gardiner Friends

Part of the Gardiner Signature Lecture Series
The Macdonald Collection Lecture

In the early 18^th century, the Saxon elector and Polish king Augustus the Strong amassed what is until today the biggest collection of East Asian porcelain in the West. The highly treasured imports from China and Japan set the benchmark for the groundbreaking products of the first European porcelain manufactory in Meissen. The Chinese and Japanese porcelain served as a permanent stimulus and incentive. The contest between the copies and their prototypes is reflected in the design of the Japanese Palace purpose-built for the royal collection. The lecture will disclose the ambition behind this unique “Porcelain Palace” that ultimately remained the dream of a king. It will also introduce a major research and cataloguing project on the remaining East Asian porcelain in Dresden. Some 25 specialists from China, Japan, the US and different European countries are actually collaborating in this.

About the Speaker

Dr. Julia Weber, Director, The Porzellansammlung der Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Dr. Julia Weber studied art history, archaeology, and French literature at the Universities of Augsburg, Bonn, and Basel. From 2008 to 2012, she prepared a comprehensive catalogue of Meissen porcelain with East Asian decorations in the Ernst Schneider Collection at Lustheim Palace, which was published in 2013 by the Bavarian National Museum. She then worked there as a curator of ceramics. In August 2016, Weber was appointed director of the Porcelain Collection, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresde. Her research focus is eighteenth-century porcelain and its artistic, sociocultural, political, and economic context.

Presented by

Bill & Molly Anne Macdonald

Co-Presenting Partner

For over 50 years, the Goethe-Institut Toronto has been presenting the latest arts and ideas from Germany. The Institut actively promotes an ongoing dialogue and exchange between Canadian and German artists and experts and brings the best in contemporary German culture, seen through a global lens and across the genres, with a programming focus on German film. The Goethe-Institut is proud to collaborate with other major players across Canada and the world.

Image: Dresden Porcelain Collection