Vase with cover (vase des âges) (one of a pair)
This model of vase was intended to be the largest and central one in a garniture of five. It originally would have been flanked by two vases on either side of graduated size. These flanking vases were of the same basic model, but they were fitted with different handles. Intended to represent the three ages of man, the handles on all the vases are in the form of heads on abbreviated busts. The head of an older man forms the handle on the largest size, a female head is used on the middle size, and that of a young boy appears on the smallest. Appropriately, the model for all three vases representing the ages of man was known at the factory as vase des âges. The handles are striking not only for the skill with which the miniature busts are modeled but also for the overall gilding that must have been intended to evoke the gilt-bronze mounts often used to embellish both Sèvres and imported porcelains.
The Museum’s vase, which dates to 1782, was donated to the Museum with a second vase des âges of the same size and with extremely similar decoration but produced six years later, in 1788 (fig. 49). The factory marks indicate the painted decoration on each vase was by Charles- Nicolas Dodin (French, 1734–1803), and Henri- Martin Prévost (French, active 1757–97) was responsible for the elaborate gilt decoration on both. Despite these shared characteristics, it is probable that the 1782 vase was originally part of a garniture with four vases now in the British Royal Collection,[1] and that the vase made in 1788 belonged to a different garniture, the history of which has not yet been traced.
The reserve on the front of the Museum’s earlier vase des âges depicts a couple with their baby seated on a bench in a lush and verdant outdoor setting with two women in attendance. The composition closely follows a print entitled Les Délices de la Maternité (Maternal pleasures) by Isidore Stanislas Henri Helman (French, 1743–1806/9?) executed in 1777 after a work by Jean Michel Moreau (French, 1741–1814), frequently referred to as Moreau le jeune (the younger). The subject of the composition—the delights of motherhood—links the Museum’s vase thematically to the four vases in the British Royal Collection. The reserves of three of these four vases are also decorated with compositions after Moreau,[2] and the subjects of all of the reserves concern love, seduction, and pregnancy. The combination of the four vases in the Royal Collection with the Museum’s vase depicting a happy couple with their child would have presented a coherent iconographic program concerning the joys of matrimony.[3] The reserves on the back of the five vases composing the presumed garniture are painted with elaborate floral arrangements held in vases resting on marble tops, and the consistency of this treatment of the secondary reserves reinforces the likelihood that the five vases were intended to form a grouping. The one inconsistency between the Museum’s vase and the four in the Royal Collection is found in a small detail. The tooling of the gilding of the band encircling the front reserve on the New York vase does not match that found on the comparable locations on the other four vases, but it is likely that this can be explained simply as human error.[4]
There are several references in the Sèvres factory archives that almost certainly pertain to these five vases,[5] the most intriguing of which regards their purchase. During the end-of-year sales at Versailles in 1783, Louis XVI (1754–1793), king of France, purchased a garniture of five vases with a dark-blue ground and painted decoration described as mignature,[6] along with a coffeepot, for the enormous price of 3,000 livres.[7] While the garniture under discussion cannot be identified with that purchased by Louis XVI with certainty, the descriptions of the ground color and reserve painting correspond, and the high price of Louis XVI’s purchase would have been appropriate for the garniture now divided between the Royal Collection and New York. If Louis XVI’s purchase can be identified with the garniture under discussion, it would have been the second set of five blue-ground vases des âges acquired by the monarch. In November 1781, Louis XVI purchased a five-piece garniture of this model with unusually lavish decoration.[8] In addition to the reserves painted with scenes derived from the book Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699),[9] each of the vases is decorated with patterns of so-called jeweling, in which tiny dots of colored enamel are set into small roundels of stamped gold foil in imitation of jewels. Largely due to the costs associated with this technique, this garniture, now divided between the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles,[10] and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore,[11] cost the enormous sum of 6,000 livres. It can be assumed that the monarch prized this set of “jeweled” vases, as he kept it in his private library at Versailles.[12]
Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Munger, European Porcelain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018)
1. Sassoon 1991, p. 133; Munger 2007b; Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, pp. 414–18.
2. The works after Moreau were published in the Seconde suite d’estampes (1777); the one scene not by Moreau, “Le Petit Jour,” reproduces an engraving by Nicolas de Launay (French, 1739–1792) after Sigmund Freudenberger (Swiss, 1745–1801). Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
3. This is discussed in greater detail in Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
4. Munger 2007b, p. 137; Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
5. The painters’ ledger indicates that Bouillat was responsible for the flower painting on a garniture of five vases corresponding in decoration to the five under discussion in this entry; Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
6. This term refers to reserves painted with miniature scenes, usually with figural compositions, that were often derived from paintings.
7. “1 Garniture de cinq vases beau bleu et peinte en mignature.” Archives, Cité de la Céramique, Sèvres, Vy 9, fol. 78v.
8. Sassoon 1991, p. 133.
9. Les Aventures de Télémaque (The adventures of Telemachus) was written by François de Salignac de La Mothe- Fénelon (1651–1715).
10. Sassoon 1991, pp. 126–35, no. 25.
11. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (48.566.AB, 48.567.AB); Sassoon 1991, ill. p. 134.
12. Ibid., p. 133.
The Museum’s vase, which dates to 1782, was donated to the Museum with a second vase des âges of the same size and with extremely similar decoration but produced six years later, in 1788 (fig. 49). The factory marks indicate the painted decoration on each vase was by Charles- Nicolas Dodin (French, 1734–1803), and Henri- Martin Prévost (French, active 1757–97) was responsible for the elaborate gilt decoration on both. Despite these shared characteristics, it is probable that the 1782 vase was originally part of a garniture with four vases now in the British Royal Collection,[1] and that the vase made in 1788 belonged to a different garniture, the history of which has not yet been traced.
The reserve on the front of the Museum’s earlier vase des âges depicts a couple with their baby seated on a bench in a lush and verdant outdoor setting with two women in attendance. The composition closely follows a print entitled Les Délices de la Maternité (Maternal pleasures) by Isidore Stanislas Henri Helman (French, 1743–1806/9?) executed in 1777 after a work by Jean Michel Moreau (French, 1741–1814), frequently referred to as Moreau le jeune (the younger). The subject of the composition—the delights of motherhood—links the Museum’s vase thematically to the four vases in the British Royal Collection. The reserves of three of these four vases are also decorated with compositions after Moreau,[2] and the subjects of all of the reserves concern love, seduction, and pregnancy. The combination of the four vases in the Royal Collection with the Museum’s vase depicting a happy couple with their child would have presented a coherent iconographic program concerning the joys of matrimony.[3] The reserves on the back of the five vases composing the presumed garniture are painted with elaborate floral arrangements held in vases resting on marble tops, and the consistency of this treatment of the secondary reserves reinforces the likelihood that the five vases were intended to form a grouping. The one inconsistency between the Museum’s vase and the four in the Royal Collection is found in a small detail. The tooling of the gilding of the band encircling the front reserve on the New York vase does not match that found on the comparable locations on the other four vases, but it is likely that this can be explained simply as human error.[4]
There are several references in the Sèvres factory archives that almost certainly pertain to these five vases,[5] the most intriguing of which regards their purchase. During the end-of-year sales at Versailles in 1783, Louis XVI (1754–1793), king of France, purchased a garniture of five vases with a dark-blue ground and painted decoration described as mignature,[6] along with a coffeepot, for the enormous price of 3,000 livres.[7] While the garniture under discussion cannot be identified with that purchased by Louis XVI with certainty, the descriptions of the ground color and reserve painting correspond, and the high price of Louis XVI’s purchase would have been appropriate for the garniture now divided between the Royal Collection and New York. If Louis XVI’s purchase can be identified with the garniture under discussion, it would have been the second set of five blue-ground vases des âges acquired by the monarch. In November 1781, Louis XVI purchased a five-piece garniture of this model with unusually lavish decoration.[8] In addition to the reserves painted with scenes derived from the book Les Aventures de Télémaque (1699),[9] each of the vases is decorated with patterns of so-called jeweling, in which tiny dots of colored enamel are set into small roundels of stamped gold foil in imitation of jewels. Largely due to the costs associated with this technique, this garniture, now divided between the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles,[10] and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore,[11] cost the enormous sum of 6,000 livres. It can be assumed that the monarch prized this set of “jeweled” vases, as he kept it in his private library at Versailles.[12]
Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Munger, European Porcelain in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018)
1. Sassoon 1991, p. 133; Munger 2007b; Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, pp. 414–18.
2. The works after Moreau were published in the Seconde suite d’estampes (1777); the one scene not by Moreau, “Le Petit Jour,” reproduces an engraving by Nicolas de Launay (French, 1739–1792) after Sigmund Freudenberger (Swiss, 1745–1801). Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
3. This is discussed in greater detail in Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
4. Munger 2007b, p. 137; Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
5. The painters’ ledger indicates that Bouillat was responsible for the flower painting on a garniture of five vases corresponding in decoration to the five under discussion in this entry; Bellaigue 2009, vol. 1, p. 417.
6. This term refers to reserves painted with miniature scenes, usually with figural compositions, that were often derived from paintings.
7. “1 Garniture de cinq vases beau bleu et peinte en mignature.” Archives, Cité de la Céramique, Sèvres, Vy 9, fol. 78v.
8. Sassoon 1991, p. 133.
9. Les Aventures de Télémaque (The adventures of Telemachus) was written by François de Salignac de La Mothe- Fénelon (1651–1715).
10. Sassoon 1991, pp. 126–35, no. 25.
11. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (48.566.AB, 48.567.AB); Sassoon 1991, ill. p. 134.
12. Ibid., p. 133.
Artwork Details
- Title: Vase with cover (vase des âges) (one of a pair)
- Manufactory: Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present)
- Decorator: Charles Nicolas Dodin (French, Versailles 1734–1803 Sèvres)
- Artist: Decoration after a design by Jean Michel Moreau le Jeune (French, Paris 1741–1814 Paris)
- Maker: Gilded by Henry-Martin Prévost (French, active 1757–97)
- Date: 1782
- Culture: French, Sèvres
- Medium: Soft-paste porcelain decorated in polychrome enamels, gold
- Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): H. 19 x W. 10 11/16 x D. 8 9/16 in. (48.3 x 27.1 x 21.7 cm)
- Classification: Ceramics-Porcelain
- Credit Line: Bequest of Celine B. Hosack, in memory of her husband, Alexander E. Hosack M. D., 1886
- Object Number: 86.7.2a, b
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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