Vase cover
Melchior d'Hondecoeter (Utrecht 1636 - Amsterdam 1695)
Category
Ceramics
Date
1765
Materials
Porcelain
Measurements
7 x 7.5 cm
Place of origin
Chelsea
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446369.14
Summary
Cover to a jar, from a seven-piece garniture of pot-pourri jars, soft-paste porcelain, pear-shaped on four scroll feet with two pierced scroll-handles, pierced neck and cover, the reserved panels on a crimson(or claret)-coloured ground with foliate tooled gilding are painted in polychrome enamels with Venus among the clouds, holds a quiver of arrows, accompanied by two cupids, one with a bow and arrows and the other a basket of flowers, the reverse with a turkey and other farmyard birds in the manner of Melchior de Hondecoeter (1636-95), maker's mark a gold anchor mark; Chelsea, London, England, circa 1763-4. The figure of Venus is directly based on a French engraving, ‘L’Amour Désarmé’ by Etienne Fessard (1714-77) after François Boucher (1703-70), dedicated to 'Madame de Pompadour, Dame du Palais de La Reine' and published according to the ‘Mercure de France’ in April 1761. Tthe detail of Venus playing with Cupid’s arrow is missing from the scene, but was incorporated into the scene depicted on 446369.3-4. The original painting was commissioned by Louis XV to decorate the ‘appartement des bains’ at the royal Château de Choisy in 1751. There is an example of the engraving is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, acc. no. 34.17-84. The composite depictions of farmyard fowl and pheasants in formal landscapes, including peacocks and turkeys in the 17th-century manner of the Dutch artist Melchior de Hondecoeter (1636-95) or the English artist Francis Barlow (1626-1704), ‘Multae et diversae avium species’, London, 1650-55, were possibly also based on engravings by Joseph Sympson (1710-50) after paintings by Marmaduke Craddock (c.1660-1716), published in 1741-3. (Ferguson, 2014) Provenance: 'Said to have been for George III as a present to Lady Cope on her marriage in 1767 and subsequently in the possession of Lord Dudley, hence their title “The Dudley Vases”'.
Makers and roles
Melchior d'Hondecoeter (Utrecht 1636 - Amsterdam 1695), painter
