Pietà
Group
1756-1758 (made)
1756-1758 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
The Chelsea porcelain factory copied this figure group from a French Roman Catholic devotional sculpture. However, it was probably intended to be displayed in a domestic interior and appreciated as a small-scale work of art. Although 18th-century Britain was Protestant, collectors and connoisseurs of Old Master paintings and prints admired, or at least tolerated, Catholic Counter-Reformation imagery. A London sale of Chelsea porcelain held in 1761 included a version of this group, and Chelsea groups of the Madonna and Child were also sold in London in 1756. This suggests that, despite their Catholic imagery, these groups were intended for the home market.
Design & Designing
Joseph Willems (1715-1766), figure modeller for the Chelsea porcelain factory, based this composition on a sculpture by Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame, Paris. The figures here do not face the same way as in the sculpture, but are reversed. This suggests that Willems may have used a print of the sculpture, as the process of engraving and printing often results in such reversals. A terracotta model of this subject was among Willems's effects left on his death at Tournai in 1766. The connection between Coustou and Chelsea may have been via the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac, who trained under Coustou, and was a close friend of Nicholas Sprimont (1716-1771), the manager of the Chelsea factory.
The Chelsea porcelain factory copied this figure group from a French Roman Catholic devotional sculpture. However, it was probably intended to be displayed in a domestic interior and appreciated as a small-scale work of art. Although 18th-century Britain was Protestant, collectors and connoisseurs of Old Master paintings and prints admired, or at least tolerated, Catholic Counter-Reformation imagery. A London sale of Chelsea porcelain held in 1761 included a version of this group, and Chelsea groups of the Madonna and Child were also sold in London in 1756. This suggests that, despite their Catholic imagery, these groups were intended for the home market.
Design & Designing
Joseph Willems (1715-1766), figure modeller for the Chelsea porcelain factory, based this composition on a sculpture by Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame, Paris. The figures here do not face the same way as in the sculpture, but are reversed. This suggests that Willems may have used a print of the sculpture, as the process of engraving and printing often results in such reversals. A terracotta model of this subject was among Willems's effects left on his death at Tournai in 1766. The connection between Coustou and Chelsea may have been via the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac, who trained under Coustou, and was a close friend of Nicholas Sprimont (1716-1771), the manager of the Chelsea factory.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Pietà (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels |
| Brief description | Pietà group in porcelain painted in colours. English, ca.1756-8. Modelled by Joseph Willems for the Chelsea Porcelain Factory, after a sculpture by Nicholas Coustou at Nôtre Dame, Paris. |
| Physical description | The white central figure of Christ, in a loin cloth, lies backwards towards the left, supported by the virgin, who wears a purple dress and a shawl with stylised flowers, her arm is outstretched. An angel on the right, clad in a blue robe, kisses Christ's left hand. At the feet of the Virgin there are flowers and leaves painted in colours. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label | British Galleries:
The Flemish-born modeller Joseph Willems was responsible for the high standard of figure work found in Chelsea porcelain. Porcelain figures in mid-18th century England followed the convention of the Meissen factory in Germany for pose, colour and subject matter. In this case, however, the composition is based on a French sculpture.(27/03/2003) |
| Object history | Modelled by Joseph Willems (born in Brussels, 1715, died in Tournai, Belgium, 1766) Made at the Chelsea porcelain factory, London |
| Production | Apparently based by the Chelsea modeller, Joseph Willems, on Nicholas Coustou's group in Nôtre Dame, Paris. Willems may have based his version on a print, as the figures are reversed from Coustou's composition. |
| Summary | Object Type The Chelsea porcelain factory copied this figure group from a French Roman Catholic devotional sculpture. However, it was probably intended to be displayed in a domestic interior and appreciated as a small-scale work of art. Although 18th-century Britain was Protestant, collectors and connoisseurs of Old Master paintings and prints admired, or at least tolerated, Catholic Counter-Reformation imagery. A London sale of Chelsea porcelain held in 1761 included a version of this group, and Chelsea groups of the Madonna and Child were also sold in London in 1756. This suggests that, despite their Catholic imagery, these groups were intended for the home market. Design & Designing Joseph Willems (1715-1766), figure modeller for the Chelsea porcelain factory, based this composition on a sculpture by Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame, Paris. The figures here do not face the same way as in the sculpture, but are reversed. This suggests that Willems may have used a print of the sculpture, as the process of engraving and printing often results in such reversals. A terracotta model of this subject was among Willems's effects left on his death at Tournai in 1766. The connection between Coustou and Chelsea may have been via the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac, who trained under Coustou, and was a close friend of Nicholas Sprimont (1716-1771), the manager of the Chelsea factory. |
| Bibliographic reference | Young, Hilary. ‘Anti-gallicanism at Chelsea: Protestantism, protectionism and porcelain’, Apollo, Vol. 147, No. 436, June 1998, pp. 35-41 and fig. 2 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.49-1985 |
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| Record created | June 23, 1998 |
| Record URL |
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