Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

14
MANUFACTURE DE SÈVRES manufacturer
France est. 1756
Jean-Jacques LAGRENÉE, the younger
decorator
France 1739–1821
Nipple-cup known as the Breast bowl
Jatte-téton, dite bol sein
1788
porcelain (hard-paste)
Sèvres Cité de la Céramique inv. MNC 23400
This breast bowl and tripod come from a
service made for Marie-Antoinette’s dairy
at Rambouillet, designed in the Etruscan
style. By the 1780s, a pleasure dairy had
become an essential element of any French
picturesque garden as the final destination
of a garden tour, where visitors could be
refreshed by its cool interiors and the offer
of fruit and milk dishes for their delectation.
Although this work is popularly believed to
have been modelled on Marie-Antoinette’s
own breast, there is no firm evidence for
this.
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