Immersion of Achilles
- Gallery: Room 33
- Culture: Qing dynasty; Qianlong
- Made in: Jingdezhen
- Date: 1737-1740 (circa)
- Object type: dish
- Materials: porcelain; gold
- Museum number: Franks.892.+
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
In this work, you're looking at a porcelain dish painted in grissaille and gold, from the Qing dynasty under the Qianlong emperor. The central scene shows a young child being immersed in a river by a lady, a portrayal of the infant Achilles being made invulnerable by his mother, the sea goddess Thetis.
To the left, a lady rests near a water jar, possibly another form of Thetis, with a winged Nike, representing victory, nearby. On the opposite side, a bearded figure in a fiery brazier may be Hephaestus, the fire god, while a centaur appears in the background. This composition is based on a 1737 engraving by Edme Jeaurat after Nicolas Vleughels.
The back is painted with a Scottish coat of arms connected to the family of Lunsford. This dish was donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, a major collector of Asian ceramics.
See it in person
Immersion of Achilles is on display in Room 33 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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