Dmitry Vinogradov: The Man who Invented Russian Porcelain

Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov was born in Suzdal in 1720. He studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, Russia’s first institution of higher education located on the grounds of the Zaikonospassky Monastery in Moscow. It was there that he first met the polymath Mikhail Lomonosov. In 1735, Vinogradov and Lomonosov were among a group of students sent to Saint Petersburg to continue their education at the Academy of Sciences. Then, in 1736, Dmitry Vinogradov went off to study chemistry, history, physics and other sciences at the University of Marburg and the centre of the mining industry in Freiburg. He also travelled around Germany to acquaint himself with mining and manufacturing enterprises. On his return to Saint Petersburg in 1744, he passed the necessary examinations to qualify for the status of mining engineer (bergmeister).

The Neva Porcelain Manufactory (from 1765 the Imperial Porcelain Factory) that Empress Elizabeth established in Saint Petersburg in that same year of 1744 initiated the porcelain industry in Russia. The mark selected for Elizabeth’s porcelain was the double-headed eagle, emblem of the Russian Empire, stressing the state-level importance of the factory. On instructions from the court, the inscription on a test cup made from Russian porcelain was to begin with the words “First in Russia and from Russian soil”.

In the 18th century, porcelain was considered a luxury and was in demand as a rarity, the secret of which was long guarded by its producers in the Orient. The much-awaited discovery of the secret of “pure porcelain” was the direct result of the talent and zeal of Dmitry Vinogradov. In his scientific paper of 1752 “A thorough description of pure porcelain as such is made in Russia at Saint Petersburg, as well as an indication of all the processes involved”, Vinogradov described for the first time in European practice the technology of porcelain production. The first successful items that he succeeded in making laid the foundations for the future flourishing of the porcelain industry in Russia.

The showpiece of Vinogradov’s porcelain in the State Hermitage is a bowl decorated with a relief grapevine bearing the maker’s personal blue underglaze mark, a W (the first letter of the German spelling of his surname), and the date 1749. The grapevine was connected with the Russian scientist’s name (vinograd means “grapes” or “grapevine”) and stylistically also with Meissen porcelain, from which the Saint Petersburg factory took its lead at that time.

The Russian porcelain articles fitted organically into the daily life of high society in the 18th century. Ladies and gentlemen took to carrying porcelain snuffboxes. They collected them and made presents of them to one another. These receptacles came in a wide variety of shapes: a shoe, a drum, a seashell, a grape, an apple, and so on. Private customers were offered “package” snuffboxes – flat little containers in the form of an envelope with an inscription reproducing the owner’s handwriting and an imitation of a wax seal. The exhibition includes such a “package” snuffbox addressed to the exalted founder of the Russian factory bearing the legend: “To Her Imperial Majesty Elizabeth Petrovna, Autocrat of All the Russias, Most Gracious Ruler”.

The early products of the Neva Porcelain Manufactory include Easter eggs with a vertical slot to allow them to be hung on a ribbon. Such symbolic gifts were traditional right up to the early 20th century. They were given at Easter to courtiers and others close to the monarch. In the exhibition, there is a rare example from Vinogradov’s time – an Easter egg with a floral inscription (1750s) – one of just three marked eggs made in Saint Petersburg during Elizabeth’s reign that are presently known. Particular skill was required to produce porcelain sculptures, which include the finely worked chess pieces from the 1750s in the display.

The range of items produced by the Neva Porcelain Manufactory included bonbonnieres (sweetmeat boxes), jugs and mugs, teapots, cups “of various manners”, spoons and handles for cutlery, little flasks, dinner and dessert plates, monteiths, wine bottle coolers and small decorative vases. Personalized Elizabethan porcelain was decorated with the owners’ monograms and heraldic devices, including the family coat-of-arms. These items reflected all the tendencies within the Baroque-Rococo art of the second half of the 18th century. Among the main themes were ornamental and plant compositions, Dutch and Chinese subjects, portraits and battles, myths and allegories, pastoral scenes and landscapes, and birds copied from printed encyclopaedias. The painted decoration on articles predominantly took the form of floral designs, chinoiseries, “cupids among the clouds” and patterns imitating fabric. At the same time, the Russian porcelain factory made the first attempts at decorating pieces with copies of paintings: miniature replicas of works by “Small Dutch masters”.

Particular care was taken with the finishing of tea and coffee services, the production of which started to increase in the second half of the 1750s. The exhibition presents pieces from the sumptuous Empress Elizabeth’s Own Tea Service with painted decoration of hanging garlands of forget-me-nots and roses on a gilt ground (1759–62).

A significant event in the life of the Russian court was the long-anticipated appearance on the imperial table of the first service made of Russian porcelain – Empress Elizabeth’s Own Dinner and Dessert Service (not before 1756–1762). Items from it are on show in the exhibition. A striking feature of the pieces is the moulded garlands of roses that adorn the bases of baskets, serving bowls and salt cellars. Lattice openwork decoration became popular in the mid-18th century and such embellishment in this instance led to the set also being known as the Own Latticework Service. The intersections of the gilt lines on items in the main (dining) part of the service are marked by purple forget-me-nots. Items in the dessert section are decorated with the same flowers but with light blue petals. This is the case with the openwork basket that features in the exhibition. The State Hermitage acquired this rarity for its collection in 2020. The production of Empress Elizabeth’s Own Service determined the further prosperity of the young Russian enterprise. The first service made of Russian porcelain became a prototype for the striking “Cobalt Net” that is a successful brand for the present-day Saint Petersburg porcelain industry.

To mark the round anniversary of the inventor of Russian porcelain’s birth, the State Hermitage in conjunction with the Imperial Porcelain Factory initiated an artistic venture entitled The Image of Dmitry Vinogradov. Its end result was the creation of a porcelain sculpture – a poeticized image of the pioneer of our nation’s porcelain. The basis for it was provided by a white biscuit figure created in 2005 from a model made in 1968 by the Soviet artist Gleb Sadikov. Hardly any information about the scientist’s appearance has survived. We do know that he was a tall man with dark auburn hair. The curators and experts from the State Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture provided background material about the history of Russian painting, costume, furniture and 18th-century porcelain, following which Nelli Petrova, Chief Artist of the Imperial Porcelain Factory joint-stock company, painted the white figure, introducing her own artistic style into the depiction of Russia’s first porcelain-maker. Next to the mark of the present-day factory, which reproduces Elizabeth’s double-headed eagle, the piece bears the commemorative legend: 1720–2020 / Dmitry Vinogradov / 300 years.

The sculpture Dmitry Vinogradov will become a gift to the museum collection and a reminder of the long years of friendly ties between the State Hermitage and the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

The exhibition has been prepared by the State Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture (headed by Viacheslav Feodorov). The author of the concept and curator of the exhibition is Irina Bagdasarova, Candidate of Art Studies, senior researcher and keeper of porcelain in the Department of the History of Russian Culture.

The staff of the State Hermitage have prepared a film to accompany the exhibition, scripted by Anna Maslova, and a scholarly illustrated publication in Russian – Posviashchenie Dmitriiu Vinogradovu. Rozhdenie farfora “iz zemli rossiiskoi” (State Hermitage publishing house, 2020) with text by Irina Bagdasarova and design by Irina Dalekaya.

The exhibition in the Moorish Dining-Room can be visited during the museum’s opening hours by holders of tickets to the Main Museum Complex for Fixed Route No 2 (entry by the Church Staircase).

General sponsor of the exhibition – the VTB bank www.vtb.ru

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