The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche
Josiah Wedgwood (Burslem, Staffs. 1730 – Etruria, Staffs. 1795)
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1785
Materials
Dipped jasperware
Measurements
250 x 660 x 55 mm
Place of origin
Etruria
Collection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 107909.2
Summary
Dipped jasperware, The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95), after the antique, c. 1785. An oval dipped jasperware plaque laid into a rectangular black-veined marble panel; part of the frieze decoration of NT 107909.1, an earlier alabaster chimneypiece designed by Robert Adam (1728-92). The jasperware plaque by Josiah Wedgwood after the Marlborough gem, with bas-relief depicting the marriage of Cupid and Psyche on a dipped black background. Rather than a wedding, the scene most likely depicts an initiation rite, where Cupid and Psyche undertake rituals to mark their union. The couple are figured as veiled putti, led in a procession by a putto holding a sacred torch. Psyche is shown with butterfly wings which mark her transformation from a mortal to a divine being, Cupid holds a dove. The putti behind them lifts over their heads a winnowing-fan filled with pomegranates, emblems of fertility. The putti at far right prepares a bed. The story of Cupid and Psyche is also the subject of Joseph Wilton’s relief panel for the Library chimneypiece (NT 107923). The plaque or tablet is one of the earliest uses of black jasperware, matching an entry in the Wedgwood Ovenbooks in 1785. The chimneypiece was designed by Robert Adam; see original design dated 1761 (NT 109900) inscribed by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) 'Executed with the addition of a Wedgwood plaque in centre'.
Full description
The Family Corridor chimneypiece contains the earliest known Wedgwood jasperware inset to remain intact (Kelly 1965, p. 71). It depicts among the most popular of Wedgwood’s designs, the marriage of Cupid and Psyche adapted from the Marlborough gem (MFA, Boston, inv.no. 99.101), a celebrated Roman cameo of layered onyx owned by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens and later by the Dukes of Arundel and Marlborough. Wedgwood’s interpretations of the Marlborough gem were produced in a variety of different sizes, from ring-sized cameos to plaques, and in a variety of media, from jasperware to terracotta and basalt (see, for example, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv.no. 24.80.52). The Kedleston plaque was sold to Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) during one of Josiah Wedgwood’s promotional tours of the country, where, as a travelling salesman, he would exhibit examples of his products to the British elite in the comfort of their stately homes. In September 1778 he visited Derbyshire, writing to his business partner Thomas Bentley to say: ‘…I have two or three very fine tablets with me, & an easy introduction to show them at Kedleston, for Mr Curson was at Keel when Lady Bagot fixed up a tablet and two frises…& wished Lord Scarsedale might see some of the tablets…’ (Wedgwood quoted in Kelly 1965, p. 71). Although Kedleston Hall was completed before Robert Adam could have used Wedgwood jasperware in his architectural scheme, Wedgwood's jasperware, designed in the neoclassical style, harmonised perfectly with Adam interiors. Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) c. 1785 from Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) (previously thought to have been c. 1778, see Wedgwood, letter to Thomas Bentley, September 1778, quoted in Kelly 1965, p. 71); purchased with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
Josiah Wedgwood (Burslem, Staffs. 1730 – Etruria, Staffs. 1795), manufacturer
References
Kelly 1965: Alison Kelly, Decorative Wedgwood in Architecture and Furniture, London 1965, pp. 57, 71