Tag Archives: Porcelain

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November 1, 2015

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Art, Flora, France, History, Painting, Porcelain

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Orchids and elephants

I have always loved thes gorgeous Sèvres elephant vases at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Only 22 remain in collections today and due to their complexity, they were produced in a very limited quantity. Dating to about 1758, the two examples below are of soft-paste porcelain and were the work of the modeler Jean-Claude Duplessis (ca. 1695–1774).  Much favored by the French court, owners included Madame de Pompadour who owned 3 sets! 

  

 

Madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV,  had retreat away from the Court, the Petit Trianon, a small palace built for her by the king.   

Though by the early1750s she was no longer the king’s mistress, she over saw new construction at Versailles as well as recommending the establishment of the Sèvres porcelain factory.

 

Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame,  François-Hubert Drouais, 1763-4, The National Gallery, London 

In her honor I also share some gorgeous images of orchids from The New York Botanical Garden show earlier this year.  None of these are the Dendrobium Orchids actually named Madame Pompadour, but they are quite beautiful and I think she would approve.

                

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October 18, 2015

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Arms and Armour, Art, France, Painting, Vienna

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Beasts Magnificent and Mythical

Animals, animals everywhere – beasts magical, mythical as emblems of human power and status. Below is the Este family crest emblazoned with two white eagles as well as six fleur de lys and exhibited by two rampant leopards with a third perched on top of the helmet. A white ribbons binds his eyes symbolizing  loyalty as this panel was likely a gift to someone in the court of Philip the III, Duke of Burgundy (1369 -1467). This is the obverse of a Rogier van der Weyden portrait of Francesco d’Este painted around 1460 and in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  
                           Philip the III, Duke of Burgandy, Rogier van der Weyden

And in Vienna, outside the Hofburg Palace’s Imperial Treasury gilded griffins exhibit the coat of arms of the king of the Romans in honor of Ferdinand the I, a Holy a Roman Emperor.

  Inside, a talberd for the Herald of the King of Bohemia with a rampant lion exquisitively embroidered in gold thread on red velvet.

 As the weather turns colder in New York I had a last outing to the beach yesterday – the only beasts there were many varieties of seagulls, but the light on the water was spectacular.