page_title: Adam van Vianen
section_title: Memorial ewer of 1614
hierarchical_section_title: Adam van Vianen / Memorial ewer of 1614
caption_attribution_description: English: The Olympian gods celebrate the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In the foreground, amorous couples embrace and toast the young couple while flying cupids fill the air. The seated youth on the right with a cluster of grapes is Bacchus, god of wine. Eris, goddess of discord, arrives uninvited at the left. Into the midst of the revelers, she will throw a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest," leading to the Judgment of Paris, and eventually to the Trojan War. The exquisitely choreographed scene is based on a composition by the Utrecht painter Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651), translated into a circular relief by the silversmith Adam van Vianen.
context_page_description: Adam van Vianen was a leading silversmith of the early Dutch Golden Age, who trained as an engraver and was also a medallist. Unlike his brother Paul van Vianen, he spent little time away from his native Utrecht. Together they developed the auricular style which bridges the gap between Northern Mannerist and Baroque ornament.
context_section_description: Especially important is a gilded ewer of 1614 in the Rijksmuseum.  This is "a strikingly original work that is largely abstract and completely sculptural in its conception", and was commissioned by the Amsterdam goldsmiths' guild to commemorate the death of Paul in 1613, despite neither brother living in Amsterdam or being a member of the guild.  The piece became famous and appears in several Dutch Golden Age paintings, both still lifes and history paintings, "no doubt in part because its bizarre form allowed it to pass as an object from an ancient and foreign land", and so useful for Old Testament scenes and the like.  
  According to James Trilling, it "is one of the very few ornamental works that deserve recognition as art-historical turning points. Van Vianen's breakthrough was the introduction of inchoate or indeterminate form, which paved the way for both Rococo and modernist ornament."  It was raised by a lengthy process of chasing from a single sheet of silver, and chasing was the main technique used in auricular silver.
caption: Plaquette with the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis after Abraham Bloemaert
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