Unknown Sitter Plate No.3
Product Details
Maiolica plate, hand thrown, tin glazed earthenware, hand painted.
Size approx: 20cm diameter
The Unknown Sitter – Hand painted plates by Michaela Gall
After reading the book Portraits by John Berger in which he explores the extraordinary Fayum ‘mummy paintings’, we were captivated to commission a collection of plates from TSFP collaborator Michaela Gall inspired by these works.
Berger argues that the gaze of these portraits inaugurated something new in the history of portraiture. “It was the painter rather than the ‘model’ who submitted to being looked at,” Berger writes. Michaela is known for her portraits of celebrated figures from history, however these new portraits plates are of unknown characters and have an intensity and charge behind their eyes that asks for a narrative to be created for them.
Michaela Gall studied at Chelsea School of Art and L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris. Her work is produced under the umbrella of Majolica, a form of ceramics originated in Renaissance Italy which uses tin-glazes painted over an opaque white background glaze, with an earthenware body.
Michaela creates one off pieces that are painted within the tradition of Folk Art, sensitively documenting various subjects such as historical events, patterns, symbols and figures from different cultures.
