Description:
Chinese export porcelain plate decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color) with a man and woman by a stream who could be Love embracing an unclothed woman, possibly the princess Psyche, or maybe Venus and Cupid. This romantic scene is similar to others on Chinese porcelain where the figures have been identified as Cupid and Psyche, Adonis and Venus, Acis and Galatea, etc. David Howard notes that "this is much more likely to be a rural idyll in semi-classical form", and Hervouet and Bruneau write: "It is probable that these lovers represent an anonymous couple, accorded with a mythological character to satisfy the test for antiquity, then in fashion." Chinese enamelers developed ink-color decoration as a method of reproducing print images on porcelain for the western market. Dominated by black enamels and washes, ink-color decoration was first produced in the 1730s and remained popular throughout the 18th century. Often period documents refer to this decoration as "pencil'd," reflecting its use of fine brush strokes and black color.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+SR.17 |
