In the porcelain auction we mentioned in yesterday's post, the spotlight didn't shine solely on delicate floral pieces. The event also featured creations inspired by vegetables, offering a delightful departure from the ordinary.
Among the vegetable-inspired treasures, there was a Longton Hall cream jug (from 1755), adorned with grape leaves and apple green edges, intertwined with puce veins.
This intricate piece sported a twig handle, adding a touch of rustic charm to the elegant design.
Additionally, a pair of Chelsea endive boxes from around the same period took the form of tightly packed, green-edged leaves ribbed in pale green, showcasing the intricate beauty of vegetables in porcelain art.
Vegetables, like flowers, can be a great inspiration. One of the standout pieces at Taipei's National Palace Museum is jadeite carving of a bok choy cabbage.
It is a stunning piece and in front of its display you will meet many enthusiastic visitors of all ages trying to take a picture of this artwork or posing beneath the display case.
The craftsman's meticulous attention to detail brought this vegetable to life: using the natural colors of jadeite, the artisan turned the green part into the leafy areas and the white into the stems. Even the cracks and impurities in the white part were adapted to mimic a freshly cut stalk. Atop the leaves, a long-horned grasshopper and locust add a lively touch.
This remarkable piece originally graced the Qing court (1644-1911) as part of a potted decoration that included the precious jadeite with a wood carving of a spirit fungus. This combination symbolized longevity and auspiciousness, creating a timeless piece of art.
Vegetable inspirations are well-recorded in the history of fashion: Elsa Schiaparelli introduced porcelain vegetable necklaces and pea-in-a-pod brooches in the late '30s, igniting a trend.
In 1941, she pushed the envelope further by designing a black rayon crepe dinner jacket adorned with vegetable-shaped buttons.
Decades later, the house of Schiaparelli revisited this theme with a Haute Couture S/S 16 collection in which root vegetables emerged as the stars, with onions, artichokes, pumpkins, aubergines, and tomatoes transformed into intricate embroideries or rendered in micro-beads on white tops and skirt suits.
Around the mid-'50s Ken Scott, also known as "the gardener of fashion" (he loved to grow what he painted and often featured on his fabrics vegetables and flowers...), used vegetables for his Falconetto interior design pieces.
Scott relaunched such prints in the later decades, adapting them in his fashion designs. One of his most famous print from the '70s featured bright green peas in a pod on a white background.
This inspiration was then borrowed by Dolce & Gabbana for their S/S 18 collection that featured prints of cabbages, carrots and peas on long dresses.
Fruits and vegetables often proved inspiring for the Italian design duo who featured tomato-inspired dresses in their S/S 2013 collection.
Actually tomatoes have been pretty popular in fashion: the Food & Fashion exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York explores the food theme through embroideries, appliqued elements, prints, and accessories. The exhibit also features Cynthia Rowley's 1993 tomato and corn print dresses and Judith Leiber's 1994 tomato rhinestone minaudière.
I’m partial to vegetables as I love them, but, if you prefer a more carnivorous approach, there are plenty of meaty art and fashion statements out there.
Most of us may remember Lady Gaga's iconic meat dress donned by the star at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards made out of raw beef. The design was a sort of reinterpretation of "Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic" by Canadian artist Jana Sterbak, a thought-provoking flesh dress crafted from 50 pounds of raw beef steaks sewn together, creating a striking and somewhat unsettling contrast between vanity and bodily decomposition.
But for more elaborate and clever inspirations (maybe for jewelry pieces inspired by meat?) check out the meat-shaped stone from Taipei's National Palace Museum collection. This banded jasper artwork looks like a piece of braised pork belly. The hard mineral appears indeed in layers that call to mind those of fat and meat in a piece of pork.
The craftsman stained the layers from top to bottom with darker to lighter shades of brown, giving the effect of fatty meat stewed in soy sauce. He also created dimples on the upper surface to mimic the hair follicles of pork skin, making the mineral look even more like a tender piece of stewed Dongpo pork, just scooped from the pot with its surface having a gelatinous quality. The artwork preserves a Chinese culinary tradition, recalling fond memories of this dish and reminding us all that exquisite craftsmanship can help us creating genuinely unique pieces.
Therefore, regardless of whether your muse is a humble vegetable or a succulent cut of meat, the key lies in discovering the best technique to transform this inspiration into an extraordinary work of art. So, embrace your muse and let your imagination soar - the possibilities, as usual, are endless - just like your artistic vision.
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