Venus and Mars Gondola Cup

This rare example of a gondola cup with the figures of Venus, Mars, and Cupid demonstrates the lasting influence of Bernard Palissy on French earthenware ceramics after his death, and the sway of Italian Mannerism across a broad array of luxury objects associated with French court art. Once attributed to the Huguenot artist and humanist Bernard Palissy (1510-1590), who created lifelike ceramic works with natural motifs known as "rustique figulines" through the usage of live casts and molds, many of these molded, lead-glazed earthenware forms, including the present example, have now been reattributed to workshops active after his death, based in Paris and Fontainebleau. What ties these works to the autograph examples of Palissy, such as the pilgrim flask from the Lehman collection (1975.1.1620), is the usage of molds to shape the high-relief subject matter, with deep impressions found on the reverse, and the transformation of useful vessels into treasury-style objects for display. This model type has been described as a "saucière en forme de baignoire," though the term "gondole de bain" was in use during the Renaissance. Possibly made to accompany the rituals of the bath, such delicate objects were primarily for display.

Of exceptional provenance, having once belonged to Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905) and Baron Edouard de Rothschild (1868-1949), this cup also demonstrates the renewed interest in Palissy earthenware by the connoisseurs of the late nineteenth century, when the French Renaissance became a point of fascination for collectors and connoisseurs such as the Rothschild family. The subject of Venus and Mars bathing probably derives from Giulio Romano's fresco in the Sala de Psiche at the Palazzo del Tè in Mantua, which in turn inspired the decorative program at Fontainebleau and the work of Primaticcio and Luca Penni, which circulated via prints. Only two other examples of this specific model are known; one is at the Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, and the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.