Putto as Venus with a Dove: C.5-1956

Titles

Putto as Venus with a Dove

Maker(s)

Factory: Höchst Porcelain Manufactory
Modeller: Melchior, Johann Peter

Entities

• Figure

Categories

• Hard-paste porcelain

Description

Hard-paste porcelain painted in pale greyish-blue, green, flesh-pink, pink, a little red, pale grey, and brown enamels and gilded. The glazed underside is divided front to back by a low wall. The flat area on the right has a round ventilation hole, and the left area is concave. The base is moulded to resemble clouds, and rises up into a swirling pedestal which supports the figure. It is painted in alternate areas of pale greyish-blue and pink which overlap and appear mauve. The slightly podgy child Venus semi-reclines on the cloud, leaning on her right hand and holding her left up in front of her. She has her pale grey hair swept up into a knot on top of her head and wears a gold frontlet decorated with two pink flowers, two small blue flowers, and two leaves. Her skin is delicately tinted flesh pink, and she has brown eyes, and pale red lips. She is nude and sits on a green drape. The dove perches on the lower cloud to the viewer's left.

Notes

History note: G.W. Kerin, London

Legal notes

Purchased with the Dr. F.R. Cowper Reed Fund

Place(s) associated

• Höchst-am-Main ⪼ Germany

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1956-04-26)

Dating

18th Century, third quarter
Circa 1770 CE - 1775 CE

Note

Johann Peter Melchior worked as a modeller at Höchst between 1767 and 1779 when he moved to Frankenthal.

School or Style

Rococo