The Four Seasons: Summer

Single “Summer” sculpture.

These tall ceramic sculptures representing the four seasons were created for the Diana Bath in Vienna and are well documented in literature. The putti are characterized by their attributes: flowers for Spring, grains for Summer, grapes for Fall and a torch for Winter. Michael Powolny is seen as a pioneer of Austrian ceramics at the beginning of the 20th Century. In 1906, together with Löffler, he founded the ‘Wiener Keramik’. Their products were sold through the ‘Wiener Werkstaette’. The putto motif played an important role in Powolny’s artistic work, symbolizing, for example, the ‘Four Seasons’. In addition to his figural ceramics, his work included the decorative tiling for the bar of the Cabaret Fledermaus, and contributions to the Palais Stocklet and Villa Skywa-Primavesi (built by architect Josef Hoffmann). In 1909, Powolny was appointed head of the newly founded ceramics workshop at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts where he taught until 1936, contributing significantly to the revitalization of ceramic production at the beginning of the 20th century.