Description:
Chinese export porcelain coffee cup with a coil handle decorated in the Famille rose palette in green, turquoise, brown, iron-red, yellow, pink, black, and gilding with a landscape scene of Minerva with her helmet, spear and shield protecting the sleeping Telemachus from the approaching chariot drawn by two doves coming out of the clouds. In the chariot, a scantily-clad Venus urges Cupid to shoot his arrow at Telemachus; one version shows Telemachus clothes and another version shows him with his cloak open to his waist. The scene based on "Les aventures de Telemaque" (1699) by Francois de Fenelon, the source for most postclassical treatments of the son of Ulysses. This episode in which Telemachus describes seeing Venus "cleaving the clouds, drawn by two turtle doves" was also a popular subject for operas, tapestries, paintings, and engravings. There is also another version with the same figures of Venus and Cupid above two seated lovers in 18th century costume, which was sold at Sotheby's in 1970.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+57.292 |
