Porcelain in Motion: From Decoration to Dance

Meredith Martin, professor of art history at New York University, will explore the early modern global phenomenon of princely porcelain rooms and link them to present-day museum displays and to The Huntington’s staging of a lost 18th-century French ballet known as the Ballet des Porcelaines. The ballet accompanies a slate of special programming for the yearlong exhibition, “the eight directions of the wind: Edmund de Waal at The Huntington.” 

Known to Europeans as “white gold,” porcelain was both a magical material and a highly sought-after commodity in the early modern world. Royal and elite collectors in Portugal, the Netherlands, Safavid Iran, and elsewhere amassed huge quantities that they showcased in dazzling interiors known as porcelain rooms, where porcelain was set off by mirrors and gold mounts and made part of an intricate ritual of courtly performance. In recent years, artists like acclaimed master potter and author Edmund de Waal have reimagined these historic installations for contemporary audiences, tapping into ideas of desire, memory, and cross-cultural exchange. Ballet des Porcelaines complements events exploring the themes of de Waal’s three site-specific installations at The Huntington.

This is the Robert Wark Lecture in the History of Art and is part of The Huntington Research 2025-2026 "Active in the Archive" lecture series.

Presented in conjunction with