Bowl

In the 1720s the town of Breslau in present-day Poland became a center of activity for free-lance artists who decorated glass and ceramic wares in their own studios, independent of factory supervision. Ignaz Preissler, who painted the intricate scenes on this bowl, was one of the most accomplished of these Hausmaler (home painters). Using a plain porcelain bowl imported from China and decorated only with a diaper-patterned rim in underglaze blue, Preissler painted on an allegorical scene in lead black. He copied engravings after a ceiling painting by Pierre Mignard depicting the four seasons in the château of Saint-Cloud. The bowl's interior scene, which shows the marriage of Flora and Zephyr, represents Spring, and the sacrifice of Ceres on the outside represents Summer. The plate on which the bowl once stood, which illustrates Autumn and Winter, is now in the Musée Nationale de Ceramique in France.