Description:
Chinese export porcelain plate decorated en grisaille (or encre de chine or ink color) with a scene of a nude man with a nude woman on his lap, colored in flesh tones, with draped fabric across their mid-sections and seated under a tree with houses in the background. 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. 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. However, for a similar setting, David Howard states that "this is much more likely to be a rural idyll in semi-classical form", and Hervouet and Bruneau note: "It is probable that these lovers represent an anonymous couple, accorded with a mythological character to satisfy the test for antiquity, then in fashion." According to Hervouet and Bruneau, this scene of this mythological couple is based on an anonymous 18th century engraving, and the example that they show has an erotic scene on the reverse. The curvature has three scrolling floral sprays and the rim has an elaborate band of scrolls and shells. This plate is the whole version of the fake 'plaque', HD 62.013.
Tags:
nudes Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+53.P.03 |
