Tartar
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain
Dimensions
Height: 7 3/16 in. (18.3 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
Russian, St. Petersburg
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of R. Thornton Wilson, in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, 1943
Accession Number
43.100.63
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the opulent world of 18th-century Russian porcelain *Tartar*, a figurine crafted by the Imperial Porcelainufactory in St. Petersburg around 1760–70. Standing at just 7 3/16 inches (18.3 cm) tall, this hard-paste porcelain sculpture depicts a stylized male figure, likely evoking the exotic allure of Tatar nomads from Russia's vast Eurasian frontiers. Produced during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, it exemplifies the factory's mastery of this demanding medium—hard-paste porcelain, fired at high temperatures for exceptional durability, translucency, and fine detail. Founded i...
About the Artist
Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg · 1744–present
The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1744 by Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov under the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, marked Russia's entry into porcelain production as the third such enterprise in Europe after Meissen and Vienna. Vinogradov, a mining engineer educated in Saxony, developed the nation's first hard-paste porcelain formula using local materials, drawi...