Description:
Chinese export porcelain oval plate decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color), red and flesh tones, and gilding. This scene, "Pilgrims of the Island of Cytherea", was taken from a 1708 engraving by the French artist Bernard Picart (1673-1733) who worked especially for the Dutch market. The inscription that appears on the original engraving translates: "May these pilgrims be happy/ May they have an enjoyable trip/ Love guides their steps, Bacchus walks with them/ May they find good rest and good food in Cythera." Cythera is a Greek island known in antiquity for its cult of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The subject, which was based on a contemporary opera, "Les Trois Cousines," popular in Paris at the beginning of the 18th century, probably inspired Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) to paint "Le Pelerinage a l'Isle de Cythere," along with an engraving by Claude Duflos (1665-1727) after Picart. Versions of this scene decorated en grisaille more closely follow the Picart engraving; it is possible the print was sent to China since the same scene was popular on Meissen porcelain from 1730-1735. The well has a woman holding a staff and a man holding a bottle under a large tree, being led by Eros who has two small wings and holds a staff and flaming torch, with water, sailing boats, and the island in the background. The rim has an elaborate scroll and foliate band highlighted with gilt. 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.
Subjects:
Pottery; Enamel and enameling; glaze (coating by location); Porcelain Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+SR.08 |
