3356 - Meissen “Diana and Endymion”

Meissen “Diana and Endymion” Designed by Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer in 1786, pale blue pommel-and-sword mark 1814-1860, 3rd selection, incised triangular mark with swords, model number I8 and modeller’s number 35, naturalistic rendering in bisque porcelain, on a square plinth with rock formation: a mythological depiction of the half-naked moon goddess Selene (Roman Diana) wearing a lunar diadem, quiver and a bow laid aside, leaning forward to kiss her beautiful and eternally youthful lover Endymion, who, according to Greek myth, was visited every night by the goddess in a mountain cave, where he slept eternally and never aged, was visited by the goddess every night and fathered 50 daughters (the Menae) with her; showing some cracks from firing, one finger and part of the trim partially chipped, and one hand glued; H 29 cm. Source: Bergmann, Meissen Figurines, Volume II, p. 187, fig. 361.