The figurines are named for the Boeotian town of Tanagra. Technologically they were quite advanced: they were coated before firing and then painted afterward. The best example is the "Dame en Bleu" ("Lady in Blue"), which is kept at the Louvre in Paris.
Tanagras depict real people in everyday clothes, wearing hats and carrying objects. So far the examples found are mostly women, but there are figurines of men and children -- boys typically. They run about 4 to 8 inches high. It is hard to say what their purpose was. Some scientists speculate that they were used in religious ceremony.
Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Hummels are about the same size as Tanagras; they share the same subject matter and both are colorful. It makes you wonder if in a thousand years archeologists will wonder why we have Hummel figurines in our houses.
Berta Hummel, born in Germany in 1909, was a talented painter. As a side hobby, she created paintings and drawings of little Bavarian children. She entered a convent in 1931, after graduating from Art school in Munich. She expected to be kept busy at the convent with teaching drawing and design to convent students; she did not expect that her art would keep the convent open during the Nazi regime.
When Berta entered the convent, she took the name Maria Innocentia (hence the "MI Hummel" or "Sr MI Hummel" on many figurines). Her drawings became postcards as a way to generate money for the convent. The postcards led to a book which led to the figurines. Franz Goebel, who owned a porcelain factory, saw the book and his factory began producing the figurines. They were successful; consumers were enchanted by the innocent bright faces on the figurines.
In those same years the Nazi party was on the rise in Germany. As their power grew, things became difficult for the convent. Nazis were not kind to religion and the nuns were all but forced out of their buildings. Because the figurines were so popular, the convent and the figurine production were allowed to continue -- and the Nazis took half the money. Through it all, Sister Maria kept drawing.
She died too young, only 37, of tuberculosis just after the war ended. Her thousands of drawings, paintings and sketches still provide inspiration for the Goebel artists tasked with keeping the collection fresh.
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