Head of Medusa | Harvard Art Museums

Gallery Text

Renowned potter Josiah Wedgwood was not only a master artisan, but a transformative innovator in 18th-century craft, production, and science. Born into a family of potters, Wedgwood developed his own new clay bodies, such as the well-known pastel-colored jasperware above and the black basalt in the adjacent case. One of the medallions seen here is displayed to feature its back, which is inscribed with notes recording the process used to achieve the specific color of the jasperware body.

Many of the jasperware works seen here are from Wedgwood’s “Illustrious Moderns” series, which modeled political and other famous figures of the day in the form of ancient cameos so that one could collect and display their likenesses in their homes. Harnessing the interest in the ancient world during the second half of the 18th century, Wedgwood made and named works that would appeal to connoisseurs of antiquities.

[1943.1239, 1943.1195, 1943.1201, 1943.1191, 1943.1182]

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1943.1182
People: Wedgwood & Bentley, British (in business 1769-1780)
Designed by John Flaxman, British (York, England 1755 - 1826 London, England)
Title: Head of Medusa
Classification: Medals and Medallions
Work Type: medallion
Date: 1776
Places: Creation Place: Europe, United Kingdom, England, Etruria
Culture: British
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/230145

Location

Location: Level 2, Room 2340, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Silver Cabinet: Art and Ritual, 1600–1850

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Physical Descriptions

Technique

Jasperware

Dimensions

13 cm (5 1/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

monogram: verso, impressed: WEGWOOD & BENTLEY

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: [Frederick Rathbone, London, England], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, 1916, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.1182

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Description: Gray jasperware body with blue glaze on front and head in very deep white relief

Publication History

Jean Gorely, "The Winthrop Collection", Old Wedgwood, Wellesley Press, Inc. (Wellesley, MA, 1943), no. 10, pp. 132-139, p. 137
Old Wedgwood from the Bequest of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1944), no. 8, p. 13
Casey Monahan, "'If I offer you too much you have the remedy by declining it!:' Frederick Rathbone and the Grenville Lindall Winthrop Collection of Wedgwood at the Harvard Art Museums", Proceedings of the Sixty-Fourth Annual Wedgwood International Seminar, Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, 2019), pp. 33-43, p. 34

Exhibition History

Old Wedgwood from the Bequest of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/04/1944 - 09/03/1944
32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 09/24/2019; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/25/2019 - 06/02/2025

Subjects and Contexts

Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

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1943.1182: Head of Medusa