Pair of Vases with Fables by Jean de La Fontaine

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Pair of Vases with Fables by Jean de La Fontaine

Artist Léopold-Jules-Joseph Gély (pâte-sur-pâte decorator)

Artist Louis-Etienne-Frédéric Blanchard (gilder)

Manufacturer Manufacture nationale de Sèvres (French, 1740-present)

Place of OriginSèvres, France

Date1866

DimensionsH: 15 7/8 in. (40.3 cm)

Mediumhard-paste porcelain, painted pate-sur-pate decoration

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineGift of The Georgia Welles Apollo Society

Object number

1997.257

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 32

Label TextThe Japanese-influenced decoration of these vases by Sèvres, the leading producer of ceramics in the 19th century, was drawn from two fables by French writer Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695). The vase on the right illustrates The Heron, where a choosy bird looking for a tasty meal passes up many opportunities, eventually having to settle for a lowly snail. The companion vase shows the climax of The Frogs Who Asked for a King. Finding democracy too demanding, the frogs petition the gods for a ruler. Dissatisfied with the inanimate (but benign) log they are initially sent, they petition for a stronger king. The foolish amphibians are then sent a crane, who feasts on them at will. These vases use a type of decoration known as pâte-sur-pâte (“paste on paste”), developed by sculptor Léopold-Jules-Joseph Gély (1820–1893), one of Sèvres’s most talented artists. Successive layers of white slip (liquid clay) are applied to the unfired clay vessel with a brush, slowly building up decorative motifs in low relief. Gély is known to have worked on this pair of vases for at least three months.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 250, repr. (col.).Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Inspired Giving: The Apollo Society 25th Anniversary Exhibition, October 15, 2010-February 13, 2011, p. 29, repr. (col.) p. 29.