Epergne

An epergne on a slender leg with an egg-shaped nodus, with a cover, adorned fully with enamel en grisaille against a black background, locally gilded. The cover is crowned with a pointed handgrip. The interior of the epergne bowl is decorated with two scenes from the story of Amor and Psyche, which was very popular in the 16th and 17th century and was described by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (2nd century A.D.) in the work known as Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass. This story was presented also inside the Wilanów Palace on vaults of garden galleries in times of King John III Sobieski. In the bowl goblet, two compositions from this cycle were presented: Psyche's Ascension to Olympus and The Wedding of Amor and Psyche.

Apuleius’s love stories became one of favourite themes of French enamellers in the 16th century. Numerous works with these motifs were made in Limoges. As Tomasz Igrzycki states in the catalogue of the Wilanów exhibition Amor Polonus, a cycle of 32 copperplates by the Master of the Die and Agostino Veneziano according to Raphael and Michiel Coxci may have been a model for the Wilanów example. The object may have been inspired directly by prints by Bernard Salomon published in the French version of Apuleius’s Metamorphoses in 1546. The cover is adorned with medallions in the antique style and cupids and putti dancing in play. Decorations on the foot show amusements of sea-gods, winged geniuses and war emblems. On the nodus, hanging garlands tied with antique masks are visible.

On the basis of scarce original information, we can suppose that the collection of Limoges enamels in Wilanów was presumably created by Aleksander Potocki and expanded by his son August.

The epergne 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 790.

Joanna Paprocka-Gajek