Description
Book SynopsisA masterful deciphering of an extraordinary art object, illuminating some of the biggest questions of the eighteenth century
Trade Review“This book is truly compelling. In its rethinking of a singular object, Wahrman manages to write a startlingly new history of court culture, consumption, representation, the material, the Baroque . . . and Dresden. I loved it.”—Edmund de Waal, author of
The Hare with Amber Eyes “Wahrman takes us on brilliant and enthralling tour of late seventeenth-century European culture. This deftly crafted book takes the artisanal productions of that age as its best portraits, and always to the reader’s delight.”—Timothy Brook, author of
Vermeer’s Hat “Wahrman deciphers a truly unique, incredibly puzzling work of art and uses it as a key to the universe of baroque culture. A masterpiece of refined scholarship, elegantly written, full of subtle interpretations and surprising insights.”—Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Study
“Departing from a painstaking and elegant study of a single Saxon masterpiece, Dror Wahrman’s book offers us a breakthrough model for writing the history of eighteenth-century material culture in a transnational perspective.”—Suzanne Marchand, author of
Porcelain: A History from the Heart of Europe
