Group

Art Historical Context

Created around 1786 at the renowned Le Nove Porcelain Manufactory in northern Italy, this terraglia (creamware) group exemplifies the factory’s late-eighteenth-century production under the direction of Domenico Bosello. Standing fifteen inches tall, the sculpture captures a lively gathering of boys in a medium that offered an affordable yet refined alternative to costly porcelain. Le Nove’s creamware, with its smooth, pale surface and crisp modeling, allowed artisans to render expressive faces and animated poses while keeping pieces accessible to a growing middle-class audience. Terraglia had become especially popular across Europe as factories sought to rival English Wedgwood wares. At Le Nove, Bosello and his colleagues combined Italian sculptural traditions with the lighter, playful spirit of the period, producing figural groups that served both decorative and narrative purposes. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1972, the work remains a vivid reminder of how Italian ceramic workshops contributed to the broader story of European decorative arts during the Enlightenment.

About the Artist

Domenico Bosello|Le Nove Porcelain Manufactory (Italian|Italian) · 1755 | –1821 |

Italian, 1755–1821|