Myrna Schkolne: Early Staffordshire Figures

Classical figures are SO under-rated. Their quality is frequently glorious, with lovely soft enamels associated with early figures. That most collectors find them 'boring' is a sad reflection on our intellectual capacity, or lack thereof. I too was among the clueless....until I acquired a copy of Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. This book made the story that each classical figure tells riveting--most would be R rated by today's standards. The figures became more interesting as I learned about them, and all the little details made sense.  Particularly puzzling was this figure, commonly referred to as "The Sacrifice."

I bought this figure about 2 years ago. I thought the enamels were luscious, but I knew nothing about the subject. My research took me to Peter Bradshaw's book on Derby figures. There I learned that Derby made a pair of 'sacrifice' figures. The male portrays Jason and the female is Medea. They are both modeled at the Altar of Diana. The Derby male appears to have been the prototype of the Staffordshire male we see above, but the female Derby figure seems to have disappeared, and today we don't know what it looks like.

Bradshaw (pp. 179-181) traces the male figure to an engraving by Charles Monnet titled Jason and Medea at the Altar of Diana from ‘Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide’ by L’Abbe Bannier, Paris, 1767-71. I found a copy of this book at the NY Public Library. It was stored off site, so I had to put in a request and return two days later to the Print Room to see the book by appointment. My heart was in my mouth as I carefully paged through, looking for the source engraving. Well, I found it...but, sadly, it bears little resemblance to the figure. The engraving did inspire  a large composite Derby 'sacrifice' group, so perhaps Bradshaw determined that the individual figures were derivative. Who knows? Anyway, it does make sense that the Staffordshire figures depict Jason and Medea at the altar of Diana.
 

The figures, like most classical figures, are usually found on white bases with a decorative line. Encoch Wood made a figure of Medea just like the one above. We know this because of a large shard (interestingly, it is porcelain) excavated from the St Paul's Church, Burslem, site. It was among the wares Enoch Wood deposited there in 1828.  Interestingly, there is more than one model of Jason. He occurs with a different head, as below

I have not seen a different version of Medea--nor have I seen the figure with the beard paired with Medea, so perhaps he was made to stand alone. Time may reveal more!

As mythical figures go, Medea was among the worst. She was Jason's wife and a witch...literally. The only good thing she seems to have done, was help Jason capture the Golden Fleece. When Jason deserted her, she murdered  their children to exact revenge. As a sorceress, she did the unbelievable. There was much draining-and-replacing of blood, and Medea actually rejuvenated a ram, after chopping it into bits. I know we have Jason sacrificing the animal in our figure, but perhaps a blog reader can explain all this to me.

A later addition to this posting:
Andrew Dando has kindly supplied a photograph of a pair of figures from the Chelsea-Derby porcelain manufactory,  c1780.

Andrew's porcelain Jason was clearly the prototype for the Staffordshire figure. As for the companion....well, she seems a little confused.  Her floral garland suggests she is Flora, while the Dove in her hand suggests she might be Venus. My guess is that the modeler had no idea of the identity of Jason's companion, so he improvised.