Andromeda on the rock (Desoches)
Andromeda on the rock is the name of a porcelain figure that was modeled by Jean Jacques Desoches in 1773/1774 . It shows the naked Andromeda chained to a rock waiting for the sea monster to be eaten as a sacrifice.
Shown is a moment from the legends around Perseus and Andromeda. Because of her mother's vanity, Cassiopeia , Andromeda was to be sacrificed to a sea monster. At one point she was chained to a rock near the water. The figure shows the time when Andromeda is waiting for the monster or her savior Perseus, who appears a little later. Andromeda squirms, half standing, half sitting on the rock. She is chained with her left arm and right leg. The only covering is a pink cloak with a gold rim, which is only held by a ribbon around the left arm and the end of which only covers the lap. The skin is very light, almost white, although Andromeda is the daughter of the Ethiopian king Cepheus . Her back-length hair is dark blonde and she wears a tiara in her hair .
The representation of Andromeda chained to a rock has a long tradition. In ancient Greece, however, the princess was shown in full clothing. The wall paintings in Pompeii that they depict also show women dressed throughout. Only in the further course of the Roman Empire did the iconography change and Andromeda was shown undressed, which was adopted from medieval art, which initially had access to Roman models. The sculptor of the figure, Jean Desoches, used a copper engraving by Laurent Cars from 1731, who in turn copied a painting by François Lemoyne from 1723, reversed. Desoches turned the figure back into the rotation of the painting for his work.
Desoches created the model 1773/1774 towards the end of his working hours in the Fürstenberg porcelain factory . The classicist work of art is 28.5 centimeters high. The porcelain is painted in colors, the golden edges on the cape are made of real gold. There are several copies of the sculpture , one is in the Museum August Kestner , one in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin , a third, half a centimeter smaller, in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig . As a parallel piece, Desoches designed a sculpture with Perseus fighting the monster.
Engraving template by Laurent Cars
Painting template by François Lemoyne
literature
- Rainer Klimek-Winter: Andromeda tragedies. Sophocles - Euripides - Livius - Andronicus Ennius - Accius. Text, introduction and comment. Teubner, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-519-07470-2 (contributions to antiquity, volume 21), pp. 110-111
- Elisabeth Reissinger: Porcelain from Fürstenberg. State capital Hanover / The Lord Mayor / Kestner Museum, Hanover 1997, ISBN 3-924029-27-X (Museum Kestnerianum, Volume 3), p. 31