Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 15. (Budapest, 1995)

BALLA Gabriella: „Szerelem és ármány" - Mercurius és Aglauros. A kerámia gyűjtemény egyik „istoriato" tálja

there is the figure of a naked Mercury standing in a garden surrounded by a wall. He is holding a caduceus in his right hand and is wearing a winged helmet on his head; there drapery over his shoulder. His left hand is raised in a gesture of warning to a female figgure, Aglauros, facing him with her hair done up and wearing a yellow dress, her left hand resting on her hip (111. 2). To the right, Pandrosos in a blue dress and with her hair done up is sitting under an arcade supported by pillars. Next to her, Herse dressed in orange is standing with her hair loose; she and Pandrosos are facing each other with shoulders touching (111. 4). On the left in the background, there is a naked young man standing on a pedestal with another naked male figure, Mercury (?), hovering above him. Mercury swishes his staff in his right hand, or perhaps, waves it at the yough; some people are watching the scene from below the pedestal (111. 3). In the background can be seen a town surrounded by a wall, cupolas with lanterns and drums, and spires decorated with cornices. There is a coat of arms above: that of Nicolaus Rabenhaupt von Suche, Governor of Lower Austria, and his wife Genoveva Lamparter, third daughter of the Chancellor of Wiirrtemberg

11 (111. 5). The reverse is ivory-white with three yellow rings on it: two on the rim and one on the edge of the foot. The inscription Mercurius et / xerses is written in blue in the middle of the foot (111. 6). The dish is painted in yellow, orange, ochre, brown, green, blue, grey and black on a white glaze with grey and blue contours or shading. The contradiction between the meaning of the inscription on the reverse - Mercurius et / xerxes, i.e. Mercury and Xerxes (?), which was later discovered to have been a misinterpretation - and its illustration on the dish made in Urbino presumably between 1535 and 1540 is apparent at first glance, because there is only one male figure among the four principal characters of the scene. This figure can be easily identified as Mercury himself thanks to his being depicted with his attributes (his winged helmet and his staff with the serpent, i.e. the caduceus). Observing the remaining three main characters, the only figure that could possibly be the Persian king Xerxes is the person in blue clothes with rather sinewy arms, small breasts and put-up hair (111. 4). This is how Ilona P. Brestyánszky describes this scene: "On the open loggia of a Renaissance palace, one can see King Xerxes in the company of a female figure and, in front of the loggia, Mercury with a maid of honour on her way out of the palace".

12 For a long time, this misinterpretation of the inscription prevented the proper recognition of the theme. It was a more thorough examination of the words in question that led to the following result: xerses - herses - Herse. The story of Herse is known from Ovid's Metamorphoses:^ flying above the groves of Lyceum, Mercury glances down at Herse and the other maidens, who have taken sacrificial gifts in their baskets to Minerva's temple, and falls in love with her.

14 This is the best known, and thus most frequently depicted, moment in the story. For example, mention may be made of one of the Bernard Salomon woodcuts illustrating the Metamorphoses in the version condensed into epigrams by M. Gabrielo Symeoni (publixhed by Jean de Tournes in Lyon in 1559), 15 or another woodcut (111. 7) in a series by Virgil Solis, one based on Salomon's above-mentioned woodcut, but which is more detailed and illustrates a 1563 German edition of the Metamorphoses (published by Siegmund Fayerabend in Frankfurt).

16 Moreover, there is a dish from Urbino, also painted on the basis of Salomon's woodcut, which is now kept in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Brunswick.

17 The scene depicted on the dish under discussion is an episode rarely shown and different from the pattern developed previously: it is the sequel to Herse'

s story. Having come down to earth outside the home of Cecrops's daughters (Aglauros, Herse and Pandrosos), Mercury speaks to Aglauros, asking her to mediate between him and Herse. Therefore, it is Mercury and Aglauros who are standing in the foreground and the two figures on the loggia are those of Pandrosos and Herse. This is how Ovid continues the story: