Oval Plate: Ceres Holding a Torch; Minerva

This bold plate depicts Ceres searching by torchlight for her abducted daughter Proserpina at the Gates of Hell. As in the Apollo and the Muses dish (1916.4.29), the artist combines hatched lines with gray and white to create flesh tones along with a palette of dark greens, blues, and browns. On the reverse is an equally large image of the goddess Minerva, suggesting that the oval might have been set into a door to be visible from both sides.

Source: Wardropper, Ian and Julia Day. Limoges Enamels at The Frick Collection. New York: The Frick Collection/D Giles Limited, 2015.

Madame de La Sayette, Poitiers. Her sale, April 23–28, 1860, Paris, Lot 141. Comte Daupias sale, November 8–10, 1894, Paris, sold for 1,520 francs. J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York. Duveen. Frick, 1916.

Source: Enamels, Rugs and Silver in The Frick Collection. Volume VIII. New York: The Frick Collection, 1977.