Getty Museum

Lidded vase (vàse a panneaux)

Date

about 1766–1770

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain, colored enamels, and gilding

Culture

French

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

Described in the archives of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory as a *vase à panneaux* (paneled vase), this lidded vase was named for its prominent reserve panels, which show pastoral and floral designs. The porcelain painter based the front scene on an engraving of a Dutch painting by Nicholaes Berchem. Porcelain painters in France in the 1700s were particularly fond of copying genre scenes from the previous century to decorate their vessels. Not only the painted scenes but also the gilding on this vase are typical of the grandest works produced at Sèvres. The gilding is of outstanding quality, thickly applied and then carefully tooled to create varied borders and patterns with subtle textures. Laurel leaf branches with berries and veined leaves and a wide band with zigzag lines frame the reserve panels. The gilded surfaces of the handles, the laurel swags, and the gadroons above the foot are burnished in imitation of gilt bronze.

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