Trip to Germany: Meissen (Day 7)

After leaving the Gemaldegalerie in Dresden, Rachel and I checked out of our hotel and headed in the car to visit the Meissen porcelain factory. Rachel was so nice in accompanying me here and said, "I'll go where you want to go - I want you to have a good trip." She is such a sweetheart.

I was really curious about going to this place because I've studied Meissen porcelain. This is the first porcelain factory that was established in Europe under the endorsement of the ruler August the Strong (see timeline). In fact, August the Strong essentially held the alchemist Böttger and his comrades in captivity until they were able to figure out how to produce porcelain! Meissen continues to produce porcelain today and the museum displays both contemporary and traditional porcelain. Here were some of my favorites:

Jörg Danielcyzk's "Saxonia" (2014) is a life-sized female figure whose skirt is decorated with 8,000 handmade porcelain blossoms. Danielcyzk has been working at the factory for over 45 years and understandably considers this work of art (as the largest free-standing porcelain sculpture the world) as a highlight of his career!

Ernst August Leuteritz's ornamental vase "Flora," 1877

Johann Theodor Paul Helmig's clock "The Future" (Die Zukunft, 1904) reminds me a little of Guiseppe Sanmartino's "The Veiled Christ." I love the little figures of Day and Night too.

This figurine was based of the Liotard's "The Chocolate Girl" pastel that we saw in Dresden that very morning. This model was formed in 1843, but the specific object on display dated from 1920.

Johann Gottlieb Kirchner's porcelain rhinoceros (2010) pays homage to Albrect Dürer's woodcut print from 1515

At the end of our visit through the museum, we attended a demonstration of how porcelain is made. It was a little bit too contrived and formal as a presentation (it felt like it was really just geared toward getting tourists to spend money in the gift shop), but it was memorable nonetheless. I couldn't really afford anything in the gift shop, but I did buy a little putti head that had been used as a demonstration example.

We spend the afternoon driving through the German countryside until we reached Berlin. We stayed at the NH Collection hotel on Friedrichstraße and ate dinner at a grill called Peter Pane (Peter Pan). The interior of the restaurant was created in a way to evoke Neverland and the forest where the Lost Boys live.