Limited Edition Vase, Medusa

The great international exhibitions of the 19th century brought together the crème de la crème of the world's manufacturers of luxury. These were trade shows of the highest order, exhibiting at which was an absolute must for, amongst others, Europe's first porcelain manufactory. They served as a stage for companies to show off their latest creations whilst also enabling them to engage in fruitful exchanges of ideas. Ernst August Leuteritz, then head of Meissen's modelling department, attended London's Great Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. So impressed was he by what he saw that, upon returning home, he immediately set about producing a new masterpiece of his own - his "Snake Handle Vase" based on a prototype from Roman Antiquity that was to become one of the loveliest and most popular showpiece vases in the history of Meissen modelling over the following decades and centuries.

Porcelain painter Victoria Schmidt was inspired to fashion the figure of Medusa from Greek mythology both by the vase's snake handles and by its mid-19th century origins. Classical Antiquity was extraordinarily popular at this time and the fantastic myths and legends from Ancient Greece were interpreted on a great variety of vessels at the Manufactory. The story goes that Medusa, once a woman of intoxicating beauty, was transformed by Athene into a monster with the hair of a snake, a scaly skin and a protruding tongue. Thenceforth, anyone she looked at was turned to stone.

Her vase depicts Medusa's head, which is made to stand out against a chocolate-brown ground by areas of light and shadow painted in gilt. It is not possible to create gradations of brightness and darkness when painting with gold, an effect that can only be achieved by using differing blends of the precious metal - a major challenge for the artist involved. Victoria Schmidt's Medusa clearly bears the traces of the latter's cruel ordeal: