A Berlin KPM porcelain plate showing Helios in his chariot
Model no. 1054. The well painted with a depiction of the sun god in a chariot pulled by four horses, surrounded by a gilt meander border. Blue sceptre mark with blue enamel dash, black painter's mark and "5.R." in gold, impressed no. 8. D 24.4 cm.
Around 1810.
This depiction shows an allegory of the sun from the series "I Sette Pianeti" (The Seven Planets). The motif comes from a ceiling painting in the Borgia apartments in the Vatican Palace. The works formerly attributed to Raphael in the Sala dei Pontifici - including the series of depictions of the then known planets Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter - were in fact painted by his pupils Giovanni da Udine and Perino del Vaga. The sun was represented by the god Helios/Apollo and his sun chariot, the moon by Luna.
The first planetary series appeared around 1786, engraved by the Florentine artist Carlo Lasinio (1759 - 1838), and this was followed by numerous other editions over the course of the 19th century.
Literature
Cf. a similarly painted plate in the Iron Helmet service in cat. Orden auf königlichem Porzellan. Das Tafelservice vom Eisernen Helm und die Feldherrenporzellane der königlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Berlin Eichenzell 2013, fig. 4.248.