Chinese Export Grisaille European Subject Plate
Qianlong Era, circa 1745 "The Departure of the Pilgrims for the Isle of Cytherea" after a print by Picart. The scene shows a European couple in a landscape with trees, and a river with a boat to the left. The man is poised to pour wine from a bottle into a shell the woman holds as a cup. She also holds a staff and wears on her girdle a table with a human figure. In front of the couple and pointing the way is a winged amor with a stave and a torch. The design is directly copied from an engraving by Bernard Picart, published in 1708, entitled Les Pèlerins de l'île de Cythère. Cythera is a Greek island, renowned in classical antiquity for its Venus cult. The scene therefore has an amorous meaning: Amor shows the couple the way to the boat that will bring them to the island of love. The first scholar who identified the Picart engraving as the source for this design was De Vries who illustrated the print in 1923; others have since published it as well. Several varieties of this scene on Chinese export porcelain are known, with different borders and color schemes, on tea wares as well as plates, 91/2 in. Diam. For further example, see Hervouet, p.161, fig.7.58.
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Qianlong Era, circa 1745 "The Departure of the Pilgrims for the Isle of Cytherea" after a print by Picart. The scene shows a European couple in a landscape with trees, and a river with a boat to the left. The man is poised to pour wine from a bottle into a shell the woman holds as a cup. She also holds a staff and wears on her girdle a table with a human figure. In front of the couple and pointing the way is a winged amor with a stave and a torch. The design is directly copied from an engraving by Bernard Picart, published in 1708, entitled Les Pèlerins de l'île de Cythère. Cythera is a Greek island, renowned in classical antiquity for its Venus cult. The scene therefore has an amorous meaning: Amor shows the couple the way to the boat that will bring them to the island of love. The first scholar who identified the Picart engraving as the source for this design was De Vries who illustrated the print in 1923; others have since published it as well. Several varieties of this scene on Chinese export porcelain are known, with different borders and color schemes, on tea wares as well as plates, 91/2 in. Diam. For further example, see Hervouet, p.161, fig.7.58.
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