Covered Goblet with the Judgment of Paris
Original Language TitlePokal
Artist
Balthasar Griessmann
(Austrian, active 1650 - 1699)
Formerly attributed to
Monogrammist BG
(active 1662 - 1680)
Dateca. 1670
MediumIvory
DimensionsOverall: 16 1/4 × 4 1/8 inches (41.28 × 10.48 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number60-80
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 117
Collections
DescriptionRound base, ringed by drums, trumpets and string instruments, supports standing embracing nude figures of satyr and maenad as stem bearing inverted-bell-shaped cup ringed by six standing and seated draped nude m. and f. figures including cupid, also tree, ground foliage, and bird. Comical lid topped by cupid; two pairs reclining putti around rim, with wreath, cornucopia, book, and torches.Gallery LabelThe pursuit of love is played out in the two myths that are depicted on this masterful ivory pokal, a cup and cover, popular in late 17th-century Germany. On the pokal's stem the god Pan pursues his beloved Syrinx, an aquatic nymph, who turns into a reed to escape. Lamenting her, Pan assembles lengths of reeds to create his Pan pipes which relate to the musical instruments encircling the base. The pokal's cup illustrates the story of the Judgment of Paris at the moment when Paris, prince of Troy, awards the golden apple to Aphrodite, thus deeming her the most beautiful goddess. The god of love, Eros, triumphantly crowns the cup's cover.
With Edward R. Lubin, Inc., New York, by 1960;
Purchased from Edward R. Lubin, Inc., by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1960.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 167 (repro.).
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F88-45/1094
