A Meissen porcelain cup with Socrates and saucer with Belisarius

A Meissen porcelain cup with Socrates and saucer with Belisarius

The cup finely painted with a depiction of Socrates lost in thought accompanied by two geniuses in sepia camaieu. The saucer with the general Belisar as a beggar. Blue crossed swords mark with star and 4, pressnumbers. Restored chips to the handle, the finial reattached. H with lid 9.2, D of saucer 13.8 cm.
Circa 1790 – 1800.

"This depiction of Belisarius is based on a print by Pietro Bettelini after a painting by Friedrich Rehberg that was produced in Rome in 1790. The painting won a prize from the academy and was purchased for the Prussian king's art collection.
The subject was probably inspired by Jean-François Marmontel's ""Bélisaire"", a novel published in French in 1765 but banned two years later."

Provenance

The Hiemisch collection, acquired in 1979.

Literature

For an identical depiction of Belisar see a KPM Berlin plate in Ponert, Berlin Museum Kunstgewerbe I Keramik, Berlin 1985, no. 154.