Limited Edition Red lionfish

No art is conceivable without visions and the courage to put them to effect. Sounding out the boundaries of porcelain art has accordingly always been a guiding motif for Meissen artists such as the young sculptor Maximilian Hagstotz. His red lionfish began as a creative experiment and is of a shape ideally suited to this end: a basically oval body with a multitude of finely structured fins that lend marvellous expression to the ease with which this ocean dweller navigates its natural surroundings.

A colour scheme in red and gilt interspersed with unpainted white elements, as straightforward as it is spectacular, engenders a very definite sense of creative tension between the various areas of colour. Hagstotz carries this chromatic rhythm over into relief moulding that covers the fish's body and fins. The actual motion of the fish is brought about by underwater currents between the coral reefs in and around which it generally dwells: set in motion by the current, its entire body sways weightlessly and dynamically in a single direction.

The home of this magnificent species of fish is in the coral reefs of the tropical Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea, where it primarily lives and hunts in coral and rocky reefs along the coast, though it is also known to reach depths of almost 1,000 feet. Despite their conspicuous outward appearance, red lionfish are very hard to spot as predators, since they are patterned in such a way as to make them virtually invisible against their colourful surroundings. They are poisonous like most scorpionfish but only act in self-defence. If they feel threatened, they direct sharp spines coated with venomous mucus towards their potential aggressor.

The world's oceans and their captivatingly exotic flora and fauna have been a popular theme in Meissen porcelain art throughout the centuries, a theme several generations of artists have devoted themselves to in their deco