Back to search results

PLATE WITH THE GODDESS DIANA FROM THE KONOVNITSYN SERVICE

Creator(s): Semen Petrov Kuzov (Silversmith)

On view in: Icon Room


About this object

This plate is part of a larger service made for Count Petr Petrovich Konovnitsyn in 1798 on the occasion of his marriage to Anna Ivanovna Rimskaia-Korsakova. It is decorated with a scene of a seated Diana surrounded by her nymphs and two cupids in a wooded landscape. The figures and forest are executed in a very dark niello with little contrast, while the sky is rendered in an engraved pattern on the gilded silver. Here the lively figures and the sense of motion contrast with the neoclassical decoration of the plate’s rim—an openwork pattern separated by strips of niello and intersected by three rosettes.

Plate from a large service made for Count Petr Petrovich Konovnitsyn. Shallow plate is decorated with a scene of the goddess Diana reclining against a hillock from which grow several leafy trees. The goddess, holding a bow in her proper right hand, appears to be conversing with a companion at her right as she gestures to a companion in the distance. A smiling putto restrains one of the huntress's dogs while a second leans on a full quiver. The figures and forest are executed in a very dark niello with little contrast, while the sky is rendered in an engraved pattern on the gilded silver. An openwork pattern separated by strips of niello and intesected by three rosettes encircles the central scene. At the top is a small medallion containing the coat of arms of the Konovnitsyn family.

Object name:
PLATE WITH THE GODDESS DIANA FROM THE KONOVNITSYN SERVICE
Made from:
Silver gilt -- niello
Made in:
Moscow, Russia
Date made:
1798
Size:
40.3 cm (15 7/8 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
13.14
Class:
NIELLO
Signature marks:
MARK on bottom: St.George and the Dragon for Moscow, 84 in a square, S.P.K. in Cyrillic for Semen Petrov Kuzov
Credit line:
Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973