Three Meissen white classical figures on pedestals from the 'Ovidian' series, circa 1750
Modelled by J.F. Eberlein, depicting Jupiter standing over an eagle holding lightning bolts, Diana holding a horn and with a hound at her feet, and a woman with two children emblematic of Love, each on a pedestal with scrolls to the corners and moulded with trophies hung from ribbons, 30.5cm to 34.2cm high, crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue to rear of bases (Diana's horn restored) (3)
注脚
Forty-five similar white figures were among the 190 figures and groups that accompanied the gift of the "St. Andrew" service from Augustus III to the Empress Elizabeth of Russia in 1745 (see L. Liackhova, In a Porcelain Mirror, in M. Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Fragile Diplomacy (2007), fig. 4-25); and sixteen were in the 1747 gift to the French foreign minister, the marquis d'Argenson (S. Schwartz/J. Munger, Gifts of Meissen Porcelain to the French Court, 1728-50, in Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), pp. 153f.). The figure allegorical of Love is a slightly later model (listed in Eberlein's work records in December 1747). J.G. Ehder's work records for April 1744 include a repair of the pedestal for the 'Ovidianischen Figuren', and the 1753 inventory of Count Brühl's pantry lists 98 large 'Ovidische Figuren' on pedestals (published in U. Pietsch (ed.), Schwanenservice (2000), p. 232.