Personifications seated in a chariot pulled by two deer, riding over the clouds, to her right hand side sits a putto with a sickle moon in his hands, segmented stepped base with gilt rims, gilt and light turquoise arched borders, height 30 cm, length 39 cm, some restoration, Meissen, underglaze blue sword mark, 1st half of the 19th cent., model no. 74, former no. 127, red painter no. 17, design J. J. Kändler 1772-1773 (Ru)

Lit: Meissen für die Zaren, Porzellan als Mittel sächsisch-russischer Politik um 18. Jh., Munich 2004, p. 104, ill. 28;
this group belongs to the Great Russian Order placed for Empress and Tsarina Catherine II., for 40 mythological sculptural groups. The groups were intended for as decoration for a small exhibition room in the Pavillon an den Rodelbergen in the park at Schloss Oranienbaum, Lomonossow. The commission was given to J. J. Kändler, 1706-1775, and he produced all of the design drawings for the pieces. However, Michael Victor Acier, 1726-1799, was also involved in their execution. At the time, only five planets were known, since they were visible with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and the sun and moon were also seen as such. Kändler made the group Phoebus Apollo, which represented the sun. His companion is the goddess of the moon, Luna, whose chariot is pulled by two large deer with gold antlers, since she is also known as the goddess of the hunt, Diana and thus rules over the animal kingdom. She is depicted holding a bundle of arrows in her hand, and is being presented with the sickle moon by the putto. The sculptural groups are flattened verso, so that they can be placed on brackets on the wall alongside one another.