Page 233 - Beholding Liberty!

HALL OF THE TROPHIES
ΙΙ.4.4
French factory at Montereau
Greeks receiving the blessing at Missolonghi
faience plate, diameter 21 cm
signed: LES GRECS RECEVANT LA BÉNÉDICTION À MISSOLONGHI. (low centre) CANARIS / FABVIER // MIAULIS / BYRON // BOTZARIS / EYNARD (on periphery, in pairs, within wreaths) – LA CROIX / LIBERTÉ / (on periphery, by way of banners, alternately)
Michael and Demetra Varkarakis Collection
ΙΙ.4.5
French factory at Montereau
The women of Missolonghi in battle, ca. 1826-30
faience plate, diameter 21.8 cm
signed: LES FEMMES DE MISSOLONGHI À LA BRÊCHE. (low centre) CANARIS / FABVIER // MIAULIS / BYRON // BOTZARIS / EYNARD (on periphery, in paris, within wreaths) – LA CROIX / LIBERTÉ / (on periphery, by way of banners, alternately)
Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, inv. n. 458
MONTEREAU POTTERY, at the conflu- ence of the rivers Yonne and Seine, was active since the mid-eighteenth century; at the time of the Greek Revolution it was owned by Saint-Cricq-Casaux and run by Louis Leboeuf and Tribault.
A series of black and white faience plates was re- leased around 1826-30, with geometric patterns around the perimeter and printed decoration on philhellenic themes in the centre.
The subjects were again drawn – as in the Choisy-le- Roy series [cat. no II.1.17-20] – from the lithographs produced in 1824-25 by the painter and printmak- er Henri-Charles [Karl] Loeillot [Loeillot-Hartwing] (1798-1864) under the title Battles for Greek Inde- pendence, printed by Bové in Paris.
The images in these decorative plates are rendered in detail and are accompanied by inscriptions at the bottom; names of Greek fighters and philhellenes are inscribed in the wreaths around the perimeter (in French): Kanaris and Favier, Miaoulis and Byron, Botsaris and Eynard; there are flags with the Cross and Liberty. The images focus on major figures of the War in iconic events.
In Greeks Receiving the Blessing in Missolonghi [cat. no II.4.4], the cleric, in the centre, blesses the “free besieged”; a fighter beside him raises the flag with the Cross. The mother with child, to the left, high- lights the place of women and children in the mar-
tyred city and the sortie, the culmination of the dra- ma of Missolonghi.
In Women of Missolonghi in Combat [cat. no II.4.5], the female fighters from Missolonghi are depicted on a rocky outcrop before a fort, flying the banner with the cross, in battle with Turkish troops, high- lighting the involvement of heroic women in the de- fence of Missolonghi.
SCENES AND FIGURES OF FREEDOM Crucial turning points 233