Limited Masterworks Wall Painting Peacock with Snowball Blossoms

Some see it as symbolising beauty, wealth, kingliness and passion, others as an emblem of immortality, arrogance and vanity - the proud peacock has enjoyed special status in almost all cultures and epochs. In Greek mythology, it was the sacred bird of the goddess Hera, who decorated its tail feathers with the hundred eyes of the watchman Argus slain by Hermes and in this way endowed the male specimen with its handsome looks. Persian poets regard it as symbolising beauty and pride, but also an incompleteness thereof, as demonstrated by the proud bird's ugly feet and its only partial ability to fly.

The male in particular is thought to be the oldest decorative bird in the world on account of its conspicuous, fabulously colourful plumage and magnificent fan - factors that have made it an exceedingly popular motif in art throughout all eras. Porcelain painter Michaela Stocker consciously defied the bird's visual identity by leaving it in the white. Its fan is erect and on this occasion derives its impact not from its majestic hues but by dint of intricately applied blossom and the scintillating emphasis that the use of lustre paint lends to the eyes in its plumage. Ms Stocker created the ground by sifting elegant copper-coloured paint onto the wall plaque.

The upshot is a splendid fusion of the Snowball Blossom so characteristic of MEISSEN - as immortalised in the tableware service Johann Joachim Kaendler modelled early in the 18th century - and peerless ornithological painting.