Terms and conditions of use
Figure of a seated nun
(1752-1755)
- Medium
- porcelain (soft-paste)
- Measurements
- 15 cm diameter
- Place/s of Execution
- London, England
- Accession Number
- 2024.255
- Department
- International Decorative Arts
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Patricia Begg OAM Bequest, 2024 - Gallery location
- 17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
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Members of Roman Catholic religious orders were represented in porcelain by a number of German factories. Intriguing, however, is the fact that, despite Catholic religious orders being banned in Protestant England since the sixteenth century, many English factories, including Chelsea, Bow, Derby, Longton Hall and Plymouth, produced figures of monks and nuns. English anti-Catholic sentiment saw monks and nuns transformed into objects of ridicule, and in the eighteenth century these roles also became favourite masquerade disguises. Yet these figures may also be read as indicators of a shifting attitude towards Catholicism within elite social contexts.