Abstract: The article takes a look at the works of various porcelain manufactories: Italian Docchia, German Meissen and Nymphenburg, Viennese and French Sèvres. These works are subject to allegorical interpretation and symbolic meaning. This content feature is one of the characteristic features of Baroque and Rococo art. The author pays particular attention to the identification of allegorical attributes and specific elements of form and decor that carry symbolic meaning. Porcelain artifacts, the authors of which are prominent European masters (Soldani, Kändler, Eberlein, Bustelli, Niedermeier and Fournier), are examined in detail. These kinds of decorative and applied arts reflected the unique worldview of a person living in the 18th century - the period of Enlightenment. The following methods of art history laid the foundation for this study: the formal-stylistic and iconological analyses of porcelain artifacts, which enabled the author to identify the semantic content of examined images. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact that for the first time in Russian art studies, a comprehensive study of the works of 18th-century porcelain crafts from different countries was carried out in order to identify their symbolic meanings. A detailed study of these works gives the author reason to conclude that bestowing artifacts with symbolic content is characteristic of Baroque and Rococo art, and that these works reflected one of the features of the figurative art system of the 18th century.

Abstract: The article examines the works of porcelain sculptures, made at manufactories in Meissen, Doccia, Sevres, Chelsea and Derby. The creators of these compositions were the leading masters of this artform in the 18th century: Permozer, Kendler, Kirchner, Soldani, Willems. These artists are united by their common use of Christian themes and iconography, which are rarely seen in the secular decorative and applied art of this era. At the same time, on the example of the works of various artists and manufactories, certain general patterns characteristic of this genre of porcelain sculptures can be traced. On the basis of a comparative formal stylistic analysis, the author of this article aims to identify the main figurative features of the examined artifacts, as well as the specific features and characteristics inherent to various manufactories and craftsmen. As a result of a formal analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that all these works clearly show Baroque style features, demonstrated through the expression and external exaltation of the figure, the desire of the masters to accurately convey the complex emotional state of the depicted characters, the artists' metaphorical thinking, and the combination of the mystical and the real.