The Provenance of Monumental Vases

This book focuses on a rare group of Chinese monumental vases in relation to four generations of leading curators at Dresden Porcelain Collection. Over three centuries, various communities perceived the vases as material evidence of social identity and as a referential device of cultural memory. As curators clarified, demonstrated, and publicized the provenance of the vases, they also transformed global objects into local heritage. The book offers new insights into the production, periodization, and typology of the largest porcelain made in China after the coldest years of the Little Ice Age. Revealing a transcultural history of provenance research, it sheds critical light on the naming and transfers of the renowned Dragoon Vases ( Dragonervasen ), and shows how Dresden became a center of Chinese art history until 1945. Proposing novel methods to treat provenance research as global art history Revealing transcultural connections in inventories, archives, manuscripts, and local gazetteers Advancing ecocritical art history with analyses of energy consumption and energy literacy