Vase with handles 1877 - 1887

Editor: This is "Vase with handles" made between 1877 and 1887 by Christopher Dresser. It's a ceramic sculpture, currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The warm tones and unique shape of this piece make me feel like I'm staring at something ancient and otherworldly, especially how the artist worked with ceramic. What aspects of its construction or form do you find most striking? Curator: Note the strategic positioning of the handles, or "arms", diverging at nearly right angles before resolving into decorative swirls. Their placement provides a stark geometrical contrast to the vase's otherwise curvaceous silhouette. Moreover, the subtle variation in glaze application produces a nuanced chromatic topography, modulating the perceived depth and surface texture of the object. The artist manipulated the viscosity and spread of the glaze for maximum effect, and even the bubbles in the glaze suggest intention rather than accident. Don't you think? Editor: I see what you mean, and I definitely think those bubbles add more to the aesthetic than if it were a flat expanse of color. How do these visual elements contribute to the overall aesthetic impact of the piece? Curator: The success of this vase resides in the artist's acute understanding of form and color, achieving a complex unity out of disparate geometrical elements and surface effects. In the construction of its form we also cannot ignore the lack of a clearly defined symmetry which could contribute to the viewer's impression that it could "come to life". The non-Euclidean form challenges any attempts at fixed interpretation. It exists in a perpetual state of becoming. Editor: I can see now how all these aspects work together. I didn't think a vase could be so structurally engaging, or philosophical, before! Curator: Indeed, the confluence of surface and structure offers an inexhaustible subject for further exploration.