Lot 192 Dα

The depiction on the well of this plate is based on the copperplate engraving "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife" by the famous Swiss engraver Johann Jacob Frey the Elder. (1681-1752). The engraving in turn reproduces the oil painting by the Italian Baroque painter Carlo Cignani (1628-1719), which was created around 1684 in Bologna. At least four paintings by Cignani with this subject have survived. It is highly probable that the version on which the engraving is based is the largest Joseph painting (262 x 192 cm) by the last master of the Bolognese school. The Danish King Christian VI acquired it in 1731 from the collection of the late Count Christian Danneskiold-Samsøe. Since then it has been in the possession of the royal house and is exhibited in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen (Inv.no. KMSsp125). The plate is a prime example of the complete overpainting of the white porcelain body with copies of older oil paintings in the well and magnificent relief and/or etched gold design on the lips and rims which became fashionable in the Berlin manufactory around 1800. The combination of imitation stone with gold borders is referred to as the "Viennese border" in some KPM records. It possibly goes back to the painter Franz Osterspey who came to KPM from Vienna in 1797. The best of the plates, cups, trays and platters painted in this way were regularly presented at the Berlin Academy exhibitions from 1800 onwards. On the reverse, the Joseph plate displays an extensive array of abbreviations and numbers. They are found identically on another plate of the same model with a depiction of Jupiter and Io after an engraving of the oil painting by Charles Monnet, which was shown at the Berlin Academy Exhibition in 1804. It comes from the Twinight Collection and was sold in Berlin in Lempertz Auction 1125 on 7th November 2018, as lot 45. The lip of that plate is also decorated with imitation stone, this time resembling pink marble. The following lot, a plate depicting Antiochus and Stratonice, was also marked on the underside with the same inventory abbreviations from former collections. The engraving on which this plate is based has not yet been found.