Epergne bowl

The preserved top part of the epergne in the shape of a round plate, fully covered with enamel with en grisaille decoration against a black background. In the middle of the mirror, there is a visible damage of enamel at the point of connection with the base. Edges of the dish are very strongly degraded, with crumbled enamel. A fragment of the battlefield serves as a decoration. In the foreground, warriors in armours and helmets fight with swords and javelins. In the middle, there is a knight with a standard. In the background, on a hill, there are knights in armours holding pitchers in one hand and trumpets, being blown by some of them, in the other hand. Underneath, in gold letters: ‘Juges VII’. On the bottom side of the epergne plate there are two Renaissance cartouches
and two caryatids connected by arabesque strips.

The representation is an illustration from the Old Testament, from Chapter 7 of the Book of Judges. From the 16th verse of this chapter, the story of an ambush commanded by Gideon upon the order of God’s voice is described. Gideon selected 300 warriors from among his troops, whom he ordered to take trumpets and empty pitchers with torches inside them. He instructed them to do what he did upon his order during the attack. The warriors surrounded the camp, shattered the pitchers, took the torches in their hands and, standing still, blew the trumpets and called: ‘For Jehovah and for Gideon’. Attacked in the camp, the Midianites were defeated in this way and fled.

The epergne bowl was shown to the Warsaw audience during An Exhibition of Antique and Art Objects in the palace of Count August Potocki and his wife at Krakowskie Przedmieście 32 (today the Museum of the University of Warsaw) in 1856. It is described in the catalogue of this exhibition under item 799, along with the second one (Wil.207) attributed to the same artist.

Joanna Paprocka-Gajek