Name of Object:

Quart

Also known as:

Pitcher

Location:

Ethnographic Institute, Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic

Holding Museum:

Moravian Provincial Museum

Date of Object:

1786

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Jan Neumayer (1737-1798, Olomouc)

Museum Inventory Number:

KER 20.618

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ceramic with white and other heat-resistant coloured glazes

Dimensions:

H: 19 cm; diameter 10.5 cm

Provenance:

Otakar Vaňura Collection, Brno

Type of object:

Faience

Place of production:

Olomouc?

Description:

The quart is derived from an old Czech unit of volume of approximately 1.4 litres. The jug is decorated with a typical segmented strip with roses, and a central area featuring a landscape with fortified towns and a rider. Folk art characteristically disregarded the natural scale. For example, although it is in the background, the dovecote on the right is the same size as the spire of what appears to be a chateau.
The shape and decoration of the object are based on Rococo faience following the tradition of Habán ceramics. The Habáns were Anabaptists driven out of Tyrol in the 16th century. They found refuge in Moravia – which was religiously tolerant at the time – and its clayey soil provided quality material for the production of faience. The Habáns had to leave Moravia after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 and many of them settled in adjacent territory of western Slovakia, where they gradually became assimilated into the local Catholic population. Some of the Habán potters returned to Moravia in the last quarter of the 17th century to practice their craft under more favourable conditions. The tradition of “folk faience” in Moravia goes back to this period.
Jan Neumayer was said to have come from Pisa, but it is likely he only trained in Italy. He was one of the artists of the Olomouc workshop which, together with a counterpart in Šternberk, developed the folk faience tradition. The motifs of horse riders were frequently derived from J. Ridinger's engravings, many of which adorned chateau interiors. Ceramic and glass vessels sometimes featured production dates and the names of their owners, indicating that their manufacture was perhaps prompted by a “souvenir” value. Their ornamentation of multi-coloured floral patterns is found on folk ceramics and costumes to this day.

The quart is derived from an old Czech unit of volume of approximately 1.4 litres. The shape and decoration of the object are based on Rococo faience following the tradition of Habán ceramics. The multi-coloured floral pattern may be found on folk ceramics and costumes to this day.

Current Owner:

Moravian Provincial Museum

How Object was obtained:

Donated by Brno art collector, Otakar Vaňura.

How date and origin were established:

The vessel is marked IN on the handle and dated.

Selected bibliography:

Karel Černohorský, Moravská lidová keramika, Prague, 1941, pp. 201–202.
Růžena Hrbková, Olmützer Fayencen, in Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, Mitteilungsblatt 66, 1965, pp. 4–8.
Miloš Stehlík, in Ivo Krsek –­­ Zdeněk Kudělka –­­ Miloš Stehlík –­­ Josef Válka, Umění baroka na Moravě a ve Slezsku, ed. Zdeněk Kudělka, Prague, 1996, pp. 164, 165.
Jaromír Olšovský, Manufaktura na fajáns v Proskově (1764–1790), Dietrichsteinská manufaktura na fajáns v Hranicích na Moravě (1784–1797), in Jiří Kroupa (ed), Dans le miroir des ombres. La Moravie a la age baroque 1760–1790, Brno–Paris–Rennes, 2002, pp. 287–293.

Citation of this web page:

Zora Wörgötter, Alena  Kalinová "Quart" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2023. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;cz;Mus11_A;48;en

Prepared by: Zora WörgötterZora Wörgötter

SURNAME: Wörgötter
NAME: Zora

AFFILIATION: Moravian Gallery in Brno

TITLE: Museum Curator and Local Co-ordinator

CV:
Zora Wörgötter studied Applied Painting at the Secondary School of Applied Arts, Video Art (Faculty of Fine Arts) at the University of Technology in Brno and Art History and Ethnology (Faculty of Arts) at Masaryk University, Brno. She has worked at the Moravian Gallery since 1997 and was curator of the Ancient Art Collection up until 2008. Specialising in Dutch and Central European painting of the 17th and 18th centuries, she has participated in the preparation of several exhibitions, catalogues and research projects in the Czech Republic and abroad, and published in the Moravian Gallery Bulletin, Opuscula historiae artium, and other journals. She is co-ordinator of the Art History Database www.ahice.net for the Czech Republic., Alena Kalinová
Copyedited by: Jiří KroupaJiří Kroupa

SURNAME: Kroupa
NAME: Jiří

AFFILIATION: Department of the History of Art (Faculty of Arts) Masaryk
University, Brno

TITLE: Professor

CV:
Professor Jiří Kroupa studied Art History, History and Sociology Masaryk University, Brno. He was a curator at the Kroměříž Museum and the Moravian Gallery in Brno before joining the staff at Masaryk University in 1988 (Head of the Department 1992–2002; Professor 1999 to present). His particular fields of interest are in the history of architecture, 18th-century cultural history and the methodology of art history. His long list of publications includes an edition on the architect Franz Anton Grimm and an essay “The alchemy of happiness: the Enlightenment in the Moravian context”. He was contributing editor for the volume Dans le miroir des ombres. Moravie a la age baroque. 1670–1790 (2002).
Translation by: Irma Charvátová
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: CZ 49