Plate of Diana and Actaeon

Paul Constant Soyer, Paris, France,1889

Enamelled and gilt copper

Diameter: 22.8 cm

UMP 699

Purchased from the manufacturer at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris for 143.70 guldens.

The style and chiaroscuro-painted execution of this Renaissance Revival plate, displaying a popular mythological scene based on the Hellenistic poetry of Callimachus, faithfully reproduces the work of the workshop of leading Renaissance enamellist Pierre Reymond in Limoges, France, from the period around 1550. The scene from the legend of Diana and Actaeon illustrates the moment when the goddess Diana, caught

bathing and therefore furious, turns Actaeon into a stag so he would be unable to ever tell anyone that he had seen her exposed and defenseless. An arabesque motif with a female mascaron and grapes is on the reverse side. (jm)