Rewarding Curiosity: Wadsworth Atheneum's Tureen Turtle
By Christopher Chiasera
Walking into the Wadsworth Atheneum’s Cabinet of Curiosity, onlookers are met with an eclectic assortment of glinting objects, attractive monuments, brilliant wares, and captivating spectacles of antiquity. Before them sits a set of twin encasements, each filled with ceramic vases and intricate, glass figurines; gilded frames line the emerald walls with seraphs and biblical images; wooden shelves of lofty cabinets decorated with fanciful pottery, tiny statuettes, miniature busts, metal bodies, and carefully-engraved ornaments. Tens of dozens of novelties pull their eyes in all directions, to every space at once. Where I stand, however, one single, unremarkable sculpture, resting stoutly on its four legs, mounted on a dresser in the corner of the room, inexplicably draws my attention above all others: a lonesome tureen turtle, beautifully painted and artfully shaped. As others pass me by, they seem to pay it little notice - but I simply can’t bring myself to look away.Procured from Urbino, a city of central Italy, this tureen turtle dates back to the end of the sixteenth century, and has its heritage in Renaissance craftsmanship. Produced either in the workshop of Ozario Fontana, an esteemed Italian potter and maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) painter, or by the Patanazzi Family, it likely was the centerpiece of many extravagant banquets. The base and exterior of the turtle are smattered with dull, rustic colors that confer upon the entire sculpture a sense of terrenity; though its shell is missing from the exhibition, the two would usually be conjoined so as to offer a jarringly lifelike replication of the creature. The interior of the tureen dish features a painting of baby Moses, floating on a piece of cloth down the ancient Nile’s winding blue waterways. This stark contrast between the turtle’s inside and outside was hoped to inspire awe in unsuspecting banquet guests. The passage of centuries has transformed an exciting ornament of various historical feasts into an antique work of art, and has deposited enough social and aesthetic significance into it to warrant display in the Wadsworth Atheneum.
What attracts me to this object is its capacity to differentiate what lies within from what lies without; its initial appearance, especially at a distance (even more so, I imagine, if its original shell were preserved), is banal and monotonous. For those who care enough for closer inspection, and are willing to look beyond superficial impressions, they soon discover something beautiful. Good art is not obliged to present itself as such; the best of art, moreover, is not that which opens itself up to the observer unprovoked. The perception and internalization of creative materials and products, I contend, is intended to be revelatory. Art that advertises its aesthetic value so explicitly is often cheapened by the breadth of its appeal; art whose propensity for recognition is artificially imposed, and which is engineered intentionally to appease audiences, misses out on its opportunity to indicate something substantive. This tureen turtle does exactly the opposite: rather than immediately make its artistic worth known, it implores those who notice it to make their own valuations. It feigns staleness, and then surprises with refreshing novelty. It draws in the curious, and rewards them for their curiosity - and that, I think, is the grandest achievement possible of any piece of artwork.
tureen turtle - a short poem
cool blue pool
in a shallow bowl
of
ceramic earthenness.
like a mirage:
dry, sandy crusts
like death upon the tongue,
like licking
dirt.
dampened by
a wet, watery heart
that brims against the edges,
threatens to abound
instead of beat.
such beauty within,
such quenchful drink
for a thirsty body.
why, then,
do you not
refresh yourself?
Bibliography
“Cabinet of Art & Curiosity.” Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 13 Apr. 2021, www.thewadsworth.org/explore/on-view/cabinet-of-art-and-curiosity/.
Fliegel, Stephen N. “Maiolica.” La Gazzetta Italiana, May 2015, www.lagazzettaitaliana.com/history-culture/7881-maiolica.
Gill, N.S. “Why Was Baby Moses Left in a Basket in the Nile?” ThoughtCo, 14 Oct. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/story-of-moses-118325.
John J. Audubon, Reproduction of plate 121, Birds of America, orig. 100 x 72 cm, Watkinson Library
