Design for a large Vase representing 'Earth', Plate 3 from: 'Neu inventierte Vasi auf die neueste manier' 1750 - 1756

Editor: So, here we have "Design for a Large Vase representing 'Earth'," a drawing and engraving by Jacob Gottlieb Thelot from around the 1750s. It’s like…a fantastical, overgrown seashell became a vase. What strikes me is the dreaminess of it. I am lost with all the embellishments of the rococo. What are your first impressions? Curator: Oh, dreaminess is spot on! It's a whimsy captured in ink, isn't it? What catches my eye is this overt artificiality, a total rejection of straight lines. It’s as if nature itself has been put through a blender and reassembled with pure fantasy. Do you feel that tension between the natural elements—earth, shells, even cherubic figures—and this very *unnatural* design? Editor: Absolutely! It’s like they’re trying to contain nature but nature's bursting at the seams. The cherubs perched on top seem to be conspiring in on the act, or barely managing to hold the whole thing together. Do you think this vase design was actually meant to be built? Curator: That's the delicious ambiguity, isn't it? Perhaps it was meant to inspire, to set the imagination alight. Or maybe someone did try to build it! Imagine the horticultural nightmare of maintaining *that* masterpiece! For me it triggers, above all, reflections about mortality, and ephemerality, like life on Earth. Editor: It’s a reminder that even design can be a conversation about something bigger than just aesthetics. Curator: Precisely. It reminds us to embrace the beautiful imperfections. Now, I am reflecting a different approach when decorating my old apartment.