Cup with the Triumph of Galatea

The firm of Ferdinand Barbedienne offered a wide range of objects in various revival styles and experimented with different enameling techniques. Most frequently the pieces were decorated in cloisonné enamel of which there are several examples in the Met’s collection (2008.267.1, .2; 2017.666). This cup, however, has a painted enamel decoration, as was practiced in Limoges during the French Renaissance. The decoration is not directly copying a sixteenth-century example but rather derives from a composition of The Triumph of Galatea after a (now lost) painting by Antoine Coypel of 1695. The painter Charles-Ludovic Crétineau-Joly, who signed his name on the cup’s stem, most likely was familiar with an engraving after this work. Crétineau-Joly was trained by the painter Charles-Alexis Apoil (1809-1864) who worked at the Sèvres manufacture where in 1845 a special workshop had been established to enamel on copper.



In his Metamorphoses, Ovid tells the story of the shepherd Acis, who falls in love with Galatea, a water nymph. The jealous Cyclops, Polyphemus, killed Acis with a boulder and in response, Galatea, mourning the shepherd’s death, transformed him into the Sicilian River that bears his name.



The grisaille decoration against a black background beautifully honors the meaning of the Greek name Galatea "she who is milk-white," with the water nymph depicted in creamy white.