The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal Volume 15 1987

38 Cas sidy-GeigerFigure lb. Detail of the exterior of figure la.Figure 1c. Detail of the exterior of figure la.Figure Id. Detail of the exterior of figure la.faces probably made this type of blue-and-white wareless attractive as a cabinet piece and more suitable foruse as a sort of "blank" ware to be painted by theHausmaler and refired in their muffle-kilns.Preissler added the mythological scenes painted inSchwarzlot with touches of gold that decorate the insideand outside of the bowl. He often decorated the insideor underside of dishes, bowls, and vases, though generallynot with such full pictorial scenes but with a formof auxiliary decoration. The latter was often comprisedof ornamental work, in some cases enclosing isolatedfigural elements. Traces of gold over the underglazeblueborders on the Getty bowl suggest that they wereoriginally highlighted with gilding, a feature of otherwares of this type decorated by Preissler.The scenes depicted can be traced to a series of engravingsafter a cycle of the four seasons by Pierre I.Mignard (1612—1695), which was painted in 1677 for theGalerie d'Apollon in the Chateau de Saint-Cloud. Thescene on the interior of the bowl, which shows themarriage of Flora and Zephyr (fig. lg), representsspring, and the sacrifice of Ceres on the exterior (fig. Id)represents summer.Louis XIV's brother, Monsieur (Philippe I, due d'Orleans),acquired the chateau in 1655 and commissionedMignard, LeBruns rival and later his successor, to decoratethe galerie. The completed program was widelyacclaimed, according to Mignard's biographer, theAbbe de Monville, and even the king is reported to havesaid, "Je souhaite fort que les peintures de ma galleriede Versailles repondent ä la beaute de celles-ci." 13The paintings, which were destroyed in the 1870 fire