Spring (mid-1700s): Art, History and Details

Spring (mid-1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Doccia Porcelain Factory (Italian); Massimiliano Soldani (Italian, 1656–1740).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although most 18th-century European porcelain factories produced three-dimensional works, these were often small figures intended to ornament dinner tables or mantelpieces. The factory at Doccia outside Florence was more ambitious, turning to baroque sculptors of the great local tradition to supply models for works in porcelain. In 1743 the factory purchased from the heirs of the famous Florentine sculptor Massimiliano Soldani (1656-1740) a number of that artist's models. Included were models for a series of reliefs representing the four seasons that were created by Soldani in 1708 for Ferdinando de' Medici. One of the reliefs was Spring, or The Realm of Flora, which was then executed in porcelain.

Object facts

• Title: Spring
• Date: mid-1700s
• Creator attribution: Doccia Porcelain Factory (Italian); Massimiliano Soldani (Italian, 1656–1740)
• Culture: Italy, near Florence, mid-18th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: porcelain
• Dimensions: Overall: 40.6 x 55.9 cm (16 x 22 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1999.213

A detail from the museum

This relief representing spring includes many creatures: lions, a dog, and an eagle can all be spotted.

Collection credit

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Rare Chinese Paintings, Baroque Porcelain Plaque and Other New Acquisitions Exhibited with Hanging Scrolls,” December 20, 1999, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.