Faithfully based upon the mezzo tint by Maria Cosway (ca: 1785) of the scene from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Book V, Canto I. Spenser’s epic allegorical poem on virtue was written in the late 16th century and presented to Queen Elizabeth. Framed: 32 ½ x 26 inches (82.5 x 66 cm.)
This is a curious subject to have entered into the China Trade and emerge as a reverse glass painting. Certainly, one of Cosway’s prints of this subject was taken to China and copied in this very difficult technique by an artist in Canton, and then exported to England. The quality of the painting is masterful and the faithfulness to the original is of note. The colors are also wonderfully done. The complexity of the reverse glass painting technique was mastered in China and was an element of the China Trade from the 18th century onward. The fragility of the glass and its surviving the journey is further both fortunate and remarkable. An original print by Cosway of this scene is in the British Museum.