Plate

One of the six small oval plates, decorated with enamel en grisaille in brown tones, with white accents. White meandering lines near the collar edges, changing into cartouches
filled with inscriptions referring to individual scenes on the vertical axis, are a common motif for the set. Between them, there is a floral vine. On the reverse side, there is a bust in profile, facing left or right. The vessels are put together into pairs according to the relationship resulting from a love story described in Metamorphoses by Ovid.

The vessel mirror is decorated with a scene presenting a boy called Phrixus – the son of king Athamas and goddess Nephele – sailing a golden-fleeced ram sent by his mother. In order to avoid being sacrificed, the boy flees from Boeotia. He reaches Colchis, where he reaches old age thanks to protection from the local king Aeëtes. There are inscriptions in cartouches – at the top: Le riche, at the bottom: non savant. On the reverse side, there is Medea in profile facing right and an inscription: MEDEA. The scene was made presumably according to a drawing placed in French editions of Andrea Alciato Emblematum liber, a work by Andrea Alciato, prepared by Guillaume Roville from Lyon (1548), where the image is additionally accompanied by an inscription.

The wood engravings were probably created by Pierre Vase (Eskrich). The small plate forms a pair with a vessel decorated on the reverse side with the image of Jason in profile facing left (Wil.215).

The plate was shown to the Warsaw audience during An Exhibition of Antique and Art Objects in the palace of Count August Potocki and his wife at Krakowskie Przedmieście 32 (today the Museum of the University of Warsaw) in 1856. It is described in the catalogue of this exhibition under item 791/6.

Joanna Paprocka-Gajek