Parisian Workshop of Figureheads of Smiling Satyrs

In the collections of Louis XIV and his son, there is a group of vases that are comparable to Delabarre and Vangrol, but later and increasingly distant from the excess of pointed leaves and pea pods. The vases can be considered the work of the same workshop – perhaps one of the earlier ones in a period of change – or of an independent workshop nevertheless known to the court. This workshop was notable for its peculiar figureheads of satyrs with a somewhat sardonic smile, based on classical designs and quite different from Delabarre’s peculiar stylisations.
The introduction of elements such as laurel leaves, fish scales, snakes and mermaids of a more naturalistic type, along with the discreet prevalence of the cosse de pois motifs already mixed with feuillages and acanthus leaves with the veins highlighted on white, are typical of the group. Several vases, most of which have been recovered, also coincide in the type of stonework used.
Examples of this production in the Museo del Prado include the boat-shaped agate cup with winged mermaid (O6) and the heliotrope cup with lioness heads (O49). (Arbeteta, L. in: "Other perspectives on the Dauphin treasure: revision and new proposals of origins and attributions", Gazette of the Museo del Prado, 37, 55–57, 2019–21, 2021, pp. 45–6).