Ukrainian Porcelain in the Porcelain Collection of the Dresden State Art Collections

Abstract

During the current russian-Ukrainian war, which has been going on since 2014, the progressive circles of Ukrainian society, in particular scholars, have been faced with the question of decolonizing and de-imperializing Ukrainian history and culture. The task of returning to the orbit of the national cultural heritage is especially acute concerning works of Ukrainian origin that are stored in museum collections abroad. It should be noted that this cultural heritage is generally labelled as «russian» in the world, regardless of the cultural and artistic environment, as well as of where and when (during the russian empire or the USSR), it was created. After February 24, 2022, when russia launched a large-scale offensive on the territory of Ukraine, many Ukrainian museum workers and scholars fled the war and began working under support programmes at Western European cultural institutions. Their primary task was to search local museum collections for detecting works by Ukrainian artists and correcting their attribution. The article’s authoress, while the military operations in Ukraine are ongoing, got the opportunity to work at the Porcelain Collection of the Dresden State Art Collections (Die Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, SKD). In the context of mentioned factors, she drew attention to the attribution of two porcelain plates from the Porcelain Collection of the Dresden State Art Collections, which were listed in the database as russian-made. Furthermore, one of the plates was listed as having been made in Moscow Region, whereas in fact both plates were created at Ukrainian factories in Korets and Baranivka (now Rivne and Zhytomyr regions, respectively). The article’s authoress corrected the attribution and dating, whereupon the items were posted in the online collection on the museum’s website of the Dresden State Art Collections. In the article, these items are presented in the context of these manufactories’ production. A comparative analysis of principles of their decoration with the ornamentation of porcelain items of the Meissen manufactory from the Porcelain Collection of the Dresden State Art Collections has also been done.