Last summer, this large pearlware plaque popped onto John Howard's site. I knew at once that I "needed" to buy it (reason to follow!), but, sadly, I am a too-disciplined collector, so before I could allow myself that luxury, I had to understand the plaque, decipher its subject, and attempt to find a design source.
To unravel the mystery, I started with the putto on horseback. He holds a two-faced mask, one face looking forward and the other back. This represents Janus, the god of beginnings and endings----yes, the very person for whom the month of January is appropriately named.
But I was on the wrong track. I should have instead looked first at the youth sitting beneath a grapevine. This, it turned out, is is the Roman god Bacchus, the god of wine, who was known to the Greeks as Dionysus. He was associated with fertility, ritual madness, and religious ecstasy. Dionysus/Bacchus is said to have returned to Greece triumphantly from his travels in India and the East, where he had spread his wine culture. He came to be considered the founder of the triumphal procession, and the Triumph of Bacchus has been depicted in art from ancient times.
To unravel the mystery, I started with the putto on horseback. He holds a two-faced mask, one face looking forward and the other back. This represents Janus, the god of beginnings and endings----yes, the very person for whom the month of January is appropriately named.
But I was on the wrong track. I should have instead looked first at the youth sitting beneath a grapevine. This, it turned out, is is the Roman god Bacchus, the god of wine, who was known to the Greeks as Dionysus. He was associated with fertility, ritual madness, and religious ecstasy. Dionysus/Bacchus is said to have returned to Greece triumphantly from his travels in India and the East, where he had spread his wine culture. He came to be considered the founder of the triumphal procession, and the Triumph of Bacchus has been depicted in art from ancient times.
Mystery solved. The plaque portrays the Triumph of Bacchus, and we have the skilled modeler William Hackwood to thank for its design. In 1770, working for Josiah Wedgwood, Hackwood modeled a jasper plaque depicting the Triumph of Bacchus. And Hackwood’s design is the direct source for the pearlware plaque.
The Hackwood plaque, below, shows Bacchus seated in a horse-drawn chariot with his older companion and tutor, the satyr Silenus at his side. A putto astride one of the horses carries a two-faced mask symbolic of Janus, whose presence would have marked the end of a journey and a new start. An identical motif is on a rectangular Wedgwood plaque in the Wedgwood Museum (no. 5139) that Wedgwood made at around the same time as the British Museum’s medallion.
The Hackwood plaque, below, shows Bacchus seated in a horse-drawn chariot with his older companion and tutor, the satyr Silenus at his side. A putto astride one of the horses carries a two-faced mask symbolic of Janus, whose presence would have marked the end of a journey and a new start. An identical motif is on a rectangular Wedgwood plaque in the Wedgwood Museum (no. 5139) that Wedgwood made at around the same time as the British Museum’s medallion.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
The copper luster on the pearlware plaque is unusual for a plaque of this period, and it has been applied lightly and uneventy over green enamels. It is more subtle than it appears under the harsh glare of photographic lighting.
I was drawn to the Bacchus plaque because it is a companion to one of the prettiest plaques in our collection. That plaque, shown below, portrays Cybele. It is formed in the same manner, and it too measures 9.2" across the top.
I believe this plaque was intended to portray the Triumph of Cybele. While I can find no specific tale of triumph for Cybele, she too is depicted, at least from the Renaissance, riding trumphantly in a chariot pulled by lions, the beasts traditionally associated with her. When Hackwood modeled his Triumph of Bacchus plaque, he also modeled another depicting the the Triumph of Cybele. Hackwood was well-versed in the classics and would have been aware of the many parallels between the two deities and their cults. Both were worshipped ecstatically with strong wine and wild dancing bordering on insanity. And both were associated with nature and ferocious animals. Lions typically pull Cybele’s chariot, while leopards or panthers usually draw Bacchus’s.
Unfortunately, Hackwood's Triumph of Cybele, shown below, is not the design source for the pearlware plaque on that theme, so my search for this continues.
Unfortunately, Hackwood's Triumph of Cybele, shown below, is not the design source for the pearlware plaque on that theme, so my search for this continues.
Courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago.
Notably, my Cybele plaque is modeled in high relief and is very prettily painted.
From the reverse, the Cybele plaque is formed in the same manner as the Bacchus plaque.
Both the Cybele and Bacchus plaques are almost certainly from the same pot bank as another pair of plaques in our collection, bought very many years ago from John Howard.
The figures portray the unfortunate Princess Charlotte, who died in childbirth, and her husband, Prince Leopold. The plaques are in astonishingly high relief, and the rims are gilded, perhaps as a nod to the importance of their royal subjects. I believe all the plaques shown here were made in the 1800-1820 period.
