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Plate

A work made of soft-paste porcelain, turquoise-blue ground, polychrome enamels, and gilding.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of soft-paste porcelain, turquoise-blue ground, polychrome enamels, and gilding.

Date:

1778

Artist:

Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory
French, founded 1740
Painted by Edmé-François Bouilliat (French, 1758–1810) and Pierre-Antoine Méreaud (French, active 1754–1791)
Gilded by Etienne-Henry Le Guay (French, active 1748–1749 and 1751–1796) and Philippe Castel (French, active 1771–1797)

About this artwork

This striking plate is part of a dinner service commissioned by the Russian Empress Catherine II, called Catherine the Great (r. 1761–96). The complete set of eight hundred pieces included sixty place settings, tea and coffee services, a centerpiece with figures representing the Arts and Sciences in biscuit (unglazed porcelain), and numerous architectural elements. The empress gave the commission to the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in mid-1776 through the Russian ambassador in Paris, commanding that it be “in the best and newest style”—what we call Neoclassicism.

The plate is marked with the monogram E II (for Ekaterina, the Russian form of Catherine; she was the second queen by this name), surmounted by the Russian imperial crown and encircled by branches of laurel, sacred to Apollo, the Greco-Roman god of the arts, and myrtle, sacred to Venus, the goddess of love. The plates were further enriched by a turquoise ground that imitated the semi-precious stone, and rimmed with representations of Classical cameos, which Catherine collected. Profile heads alternate with scenes from ancient Roman history: King Numa Pompilius presenting laws to the Roman people; the soldier Mucius Scevola burning his own hand to show his contempt for the Etruscan conqueror, Porsenna; and the general Popilius Laenas confronting the Syrian king Antiochus.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Applied Arts of Europe

Artist

Manufacture nationale de Sèvres (Manufacturer)

Title

Plate

Place

Sèvres (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1778

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain, turquoise-blue ground, polychrome enamels, and gilding

Dimensions

2.9 × 26.1 cm (1 1/8 × 10 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Dorothy Hale Dunbar, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Grober, Mr. and Mrs. Stanford D. Marks, Mrs. Eric Oldberg, Harry A. Root, Jr., and the Antiquarian Society through bequests of Lena Gilbert, Harriet Jones, Jessie Landon, Adelaide Ryerson, and the Margaret C. and James D. Vail Fund in memory of her mother, Margaret Arronet Corbin

Reference Number

1995.256

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/142418/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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