NOTES
This pair of porcelains, based on a 1752 comic operetta, represents the romance between a shepherd (unnamed) and a shepherdess (Lisette). In one, the shepherd teaches Lisette to play his flute—he fingers the notes while she blows into the instrument. Given its phallic shape, the flute sometimes carried a sexual connotation. In the related piece, the shepherd feeds grapes to his beloved. Shepherds and shepherdesses in amorous couplings appear frequently in the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the 18th century. Mme Du Pompadour, the favorite mistress of Louis XIV, owned examples of this pair.
