Cup
c. 1750 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Cup of hard-paste porcelain. With subjects in relief and painted with enamels and gilded. On one side is Bacchus in a triumphal car drawn by panthers, and attended by Silenus, satyrs and bacchantes. On the other is Triptolemus in a car drawn by two dragons, and with Ceres. Inside on the bottom is a gilt floral spray.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Hard-paste porcelain painted with enamels and gilded |
| Brief description | Cup of hard-paste porcelain, Doccia porcelain factory, Doccia, c. 1750 |
| Physical description | Cup of hard-paste porcelain. With subjects in relief and painted with enamels and gilded. On one side is Bacchus in a triumphal car drawn by panthers, and attended by Silenus, satyrs and bacchantes. On the other is Triptolemus in a car drawn by two dragons, and with Ceres. Inside on the bottom is a gilt floral spray. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Gallery label | Cup
Porcelain
ITALY (DOCCIA); late 18th century
992-1853
(Label draft attributed to John V. G. Mallet, ca. 1995)(ca. 1995) |
| Object history | Bandinel Collection. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | Frescobaldi Malenchini, Livia ed. With Balleri, Rita and Rucellai, Oliva, ‘Amici di Doccia Quaderni, Numero VII, 2013, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection’, Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, 2014
pp. 41-42, Cat. 17
17. Cup with bas-relief scenes
circa 1750
hard-paste porcelain painted in colours and gold
h 5,4 cm
no mark
inv. 992-1853
purchase: Bandinel Collection
A small cup with scenes in bas-relief painted with colours and gilding; the handle is missing. The scenes represent two different mythological episodes taken from the book Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide translated from the Latin by abbot Antoine Banier: the first scene which is usually described as the “chariot of Ceres” is based on an engraving by Philip van Gúnst representing Lyncus changé en Lynx (BANIER 1732, vol. I, p. 174); the other scene is based on an engraving of the Triomphe de Bacchus (BANIER 1732, vol. I, p. 102), presumably made by Bernard Picart. Tableware and decorative objects with scenes in bas-relief were being made at Doccia starting in the earliest years of production and continued to be used for most of the 19th century. The first mention of porcelain with bas-relief scenes that we know of appears in 1743 in the inventory of a store owned by a certain Sarti in Florence which lists several objects made using this technique: tea and coffee cups, coffee pots, tea pots, snuff boxes, walking stick handles, sugar bowls and consommé cups (AGL, I, 2, f. 37, Fabbrica delle Porcellane di Doccia. Scritture e Documenti, fasc. 4). The most important and famous decorator of porcelain with bas-relief scenes was the painter Giuseppe Romei who was active starting at least from 1747 (AGL, Libro Contabile 1737-1746, c. 231v). At Doccia, as models for the bas-relief scenes they also used lead casts made from the sixteen bronze plaques attributed to Guglielmo Della Porta, which also represented subjects based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis (P. Cannata, in RILIEVI E PLACCHETTE DAL XV AL XVIII SECOLO 1982, p. 72-76, cat. 69-75). The models in lead, which are now in the Museo di Doccia, may have been made for the factory between 1743 and 1745 by Antonio Francesco Selvi or by Anton Filippo Maria Weber (AGL, Libro Contabile 1737-1746). The plaster moulds, however, if we consider that there are sixteen of the above mentioned bas-reliefs attributed to Della Porta, were probably made by the plaster artist from Lucca (gessaio lucchese) Girolamo Cristofani, who collaborated with the Ginori factory in 1744 and who, on April 9th 1745, received payment in settlement of what he was owed for having made “4 large bas-reliefs and 16 little ones” (AGL, Libro Contabile 1737-1746, c. 221v). It is interesting to note that the first plaster moulds which were most probably based on the Della Porta plaque were made sometime between the end of 1744 and the beginning of 1745, while the first bas-relief objects were documented in 1743: it is therefore probable that the models based on abbot Banier’s book preceded those of Della Porta.
A.B.
Bibliography: MORAZZONI 1935, plate LVa (as
“Napoli: Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte”) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 992-1853 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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