Terms and conditions of use
The four seasons
(c. 1755)
- Medium
- porcelain (hard-paste)
- Measurements
- (a) 8.6 × 4.1 × 3.3 cm (summer)
(b) 8.4 × 4.2 × 3.3 cm (spring)
(c) 8.2 × 4.3 × 3.3 cm (autumn)
(d) 8.4 × 3.6 × 3.1 cm (winter) - Place/s of Execution
- Meissen, Saxony, Germany
- Accession Number
- 2024.483.a-d
- Department
- International Decorative Arts
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Patricia Begg OAM Bequest, 2024
© Public Domain - Gallery location
- 17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
-
Allegory, the representation of abstract concepts by pictorial means, is reflected in the subjects of many eighteenth-century porcelain sculptures. Allegorical figures were produced by nearly every European porcelain factory. Figures were often produced in series, representing such notions as the five senses, the Earth’s continents, or the arts and sciences. The four seasons were a particularly popular subject. Each bust here is adorned with an attribute over its head that identifies the work’s allegorical meaning. Spring is accompanied by blooming flowers, summer by ripened wheat, autumn by the grape harvest and winter by an enveloping cloak.