Description:
Chinese export porcelain saucer decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color) and gilding with Diana, the huntress and her hound setting off for the hunt, which was based on an engraving by the French painter, sculptor, and engraver, Claude Audran III (1658-1734) who taught the rococo artist Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). She has a crescent on her forehead, which associates her with the moon, and carries a lance rather than a bow that she usually uses. 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. Audran was best known for his tapestry and ornamental panel designs, many of which featured mythological gods and goddesses. Hervouet and Bruneau note that this scene with Diana was taken from an Audran engraving titled, "Novembre" (November), one of the twelve months of the year symbolized by the gods and goddeses of Olympia; they also show Chinese export porcelain examples based on Audran's engravings of Juno symbolizing January, Venus for April, Mercury for June, Jupiter for July, and Ceres for August. According to Litzenburg, these engravings were part of Audran's "Les Mois Grotesques", designs for tapestry panels done in 1708-1709 and woven at the Gobelins manufactory from 1709 to 1726 for the rooms of the Grand Dauphin at the Château de Meudon. The large du Paquier-style rim border has an elaborate design interspersed with four shaped cartouches with four pairs of animals (two of a stag and hound, and two of a boar and hound).
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+SR.43 |
