Enfilade

Five Lidded Vases, 1781, Sèvres porcelain manufactory; soft-paste porcelain. A set of vases des âges (‘vases of the ages’), this garniture of five vases, originally owned by King Louis XVI, includes three sizes referencing different stages of life: a large central vase with handles in the shape of bearded male heads, a pair of smaller vases with heads of young women, and a pair of still smaller vases with the heads of boys. The scenes painted on the fronts of the vases show episodes from The Adventures of Telemachus, one of the king’s favorite books. The Getty Museum owns three of the original five vases, while the two smallest now belong to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. More information is available here»

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Now on view at The Getty:

Porcelain from Versailles: Vases for a King & Queen
Getty Center, Los Angeles, 14 February 2023 — 3 March 2024

Lidded Vase, 1775–76, Sèvres porcelain manufactory; hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mounts (National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon). This is the center vase from a garniture of three vessels owned by Queen Marie-Antoinette.

This exhibition brings together two of the most extraordinary surviving sets of vases owned by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France during the late 1700s. The vases are among the highest achievements of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory made before the French Revolution, becoming personal treasures of the royal family at the time. They were initially kept at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, the royal family’s primary residence, and are a testament to the exemplary skills of the artists who took part in their creation. This exhibition reunites all eight vases, which were separated during the Revolution, offering the rare opportunity to appreciate the craftsmanship and design of the ensembles.

The loan of the queen’s vases is part of an artistic exchange between the J. Paul Getty Museum and Versailles, where an important desk made for Louis XVI from the Museum’s collection is currently on long-term loan. This exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Esta exhibición se presenta en inglés y en español.