Object Description
Very fine and large KPM porcelain plaque of The Three Fates
German, c.1908
Frame: height 90cm, width 77cm, depth 9cm
Plaques: height 53cm, width 43cm, depth 0.5cm
This exceptional painted porcelain plaque by the important manufactory K.P.M. depicts the three fates or Moirai from Greek mythology, after a painting by the artist F. P. Thumann (German, 1834-1908). Executed by Louis Scherf (1870-1955), it shows Atropos, Lachesis and Clotho, the three figures who in the imagination of the Greeks controlled the threads of each human life from start to end.
The eldest of the three figures, Atropos, is shown on the left, holding a pair of scissors as she cuts a thread. Lachesis, to the right, and age-wise the middle of the three measures the threads, while Clotho, the youngest, a depicted as a radiant beauty, spins them. This plaque replicates this iconic composition with exquisite detail and faithful artistry, and is signed to the lower right ‘L. Scherf nach P. Thumann,’ for the painters involved. The back is marked with the KPM sceptre, and inscribed, ‘KPM 381 – 538.’