Plate with imaginary portrait of the tragic poet Moschion

Sèvres Manufactory|Jean-Marie DeGault

1811–18 · Hard-paste porcelain · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The decorators at Sèvres painted cameos in a way that convincingly captures the stones' translucency. This plate was one of seventy-two in the service iconographique grec. One set went to Napoleon's uncle Cardinal Fesch, another to a member of Pope Pius VII's entourage. Images of cameos proliferated on objects of all sorts during the age of Neoclassicism. Some were copies, some inventions, but all owed their origins to Greco-Roman antiquity. By implication, these adaptations underscored the owner's erudition and sober good taste. The owner might be rich or humble. Pottery such as Wedgwood's, for example, made enough use of cameos to satisfy all comers.

Artist

Sèvres Manufactory|Jean-Marie DeGault

Date

1811–18

Medium

Hard-paste porcelain

Culture

French, Sèvres

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Charles E. Sampson Memorial Fund, 1989