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Source Description

In the foreground of a renaissance garden sit three maidens, their breasts uncovered. Two are weaving garlands and singing to the accompaniment of the lute played by the girl who sits between them. In the garden beyond a fourth maiden picks flowers, while in a grape arbor near her a chorus of five men is singing from a music-book placed on a round table. Beyond the tree and the garden hedge is a distant landscape with a walled town and, on the right, a couple riding a horse. In the clouds appear the Gemini, the sign of the zodiac for the month of May.The rim is decorated with four masks, alternating with pairs of grotesque two-horned dragons flanking covered cups. Gilt scrollwork ornaments the cavetto. The reverse of the plate shows six panels of interlaced strapwork, three with terms, and three with flaming urns. On the edge is a laurel wreath executed in gilding. Between the panels and the edge the surface is filled with gilt scrollwork. This plate is part of a set of dessert plates illustrating the months of the year. The source of the design is a combination of two prints representing the month of May included in two allegorical sets of Twelve Months of the year published by Etienne Delaune in 1561 and 1568, respectively. There are also additions from other sources, including enamels by Pierre Reymond and Pierre Courteys adapting the designs of Etienne Delaune.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
39273
label
Plate Depicting the Month of May
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
39273
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Plate Depicting the Month of May
description
In the foreground of a renaissance garden sit three maidens, their breasts uncovered. Two are weaving garlands and singing to the accompaniment of the lute played by the girl who sits between them. In the garden beyond a fourth maiden picks flowers, while in a grape arbor near her a chorus of five men is singing from a music-book placed on a round table. Beyond the tree and the garden hedge is a distant landscape with a walled town and, on the right, a couple riding a horse. In the clouds appear the Gemini, the sign of the zodiac for the month of May.The rim is decorated with four masks, alternating with pairs of grotesque two-horned dragons flanking covered cups. Gilt scrollwork ornaments the cavetto. The reverse of the plate shows six panels of interlaced strapwork, three with terms, and three with flaming urns. On the edge is a laurel wreath executed in gilding. Between the panels and the edge the surface is filled with gilt scrollwork. This plate is part of a set of dessert plates illustrating the months of the year. The source of the design is a combination of two prints representing the month of May included in two allegorical sets of Twelve Months of the year published by Etienne Delaune in 1561 and 1568, respectively. There are also additions from other sources, including enamels by Pierre Reymond and Pierre Courteys adapting the designs of Etienne Delaune.
provenance
Henry Durlacher Collection [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; F. Spitzer Sale, Paris, April 17, 1893, lot 570; William T. / Henry Walters Collection, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1555-1585 (Renaissance)
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Enamels
plates
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Diam: 7 13/16 in. (19.8 cm)
Source extras
med
painted enamels on copper
creator_ids
3190
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
826
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
bec274020a998c58