Benjamin Franklin Medallion

Benjamin Franklin Medallion

LCSH: Porcelain, French—18th century—Pictorial works | Porcelain, French—Private collections | Porcelain, French—Sèvres—18th century—Slide collections | Sèvres porcelain—18th century—Pictorial works | Slides (Photography)—Private collections | Fritzsche, Ulrich—Art collections—Pictorial works | Gilding—France—18th century | Biscuit ware—France—18th century | Medallions (Decorative arts)—18th century | Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–1790—Pictorial works | Caffierri, Jean-Jacques—Pictorial works

Getty AAT keywords: porcelain (material) | porcelain (visual works) | gilding-technique | portraits | biscuit (porcelain, material)

35mm color slide of a white biscuit medallion (Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory). The medallion depicts Benjamin Franklin in profile, sculpted in relief, and is based on a bust created ca. 1777 by the French sculptor Jean-Jacques Caffierri (1725–92), known for his portrait busts (Fritzsche 2018). In France, “Franklin became so popularly regarded as an apostle of liberty that his likeness appeared in all kinds of media.... [He] wrote to his daughter in June 1779 that all these likenesses ‘have made your father’s face as well known as the moon’ ” (Arend 1998, 56). The inner and outer rims of the medallion are highlighted by burnished gilding. The number 54 is handwritten on the slide.

Fritzsche, Ulrich (creator of slide); D’Arms, Ted (photographer); Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (creator of object)

Seattle Art Museum Libraries

1780 (date of object)

October 1984 (date of slide)

Painter, Kirsten Blythe

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application/jpg

English | French

still image

See Complete Bibliography for the Fritzsche Porcelain Collection

France

eighteenth century (dates CE)

slide, scanned using an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner at 3200 dpi.