Chariclea, an Ethiopian Princess, Reconciled with Her Parents, King and Queen of Ethiopia

Description Clariclea, a princess of Ethiopia who was miraculously born white to black parents and abandoned, here returns to Ethiopia and reconciles with her parents. The ancient Greek tale, virtually unknown today, was popular in France during the 1600s, not as a story about Africa but as the exemplary story of a princess with grit. Chariclea’s parents are depicted as white, perhaps so that the purchaser of such a fashionable mirror could identify with the heroine. Henri Toutin developed a new technique that permitted a white gound instead of the black used previously. It revolutionized the pictorial effects of painted enamel.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
12/31/1969	Treatment	cleaned; examined for exhibition

Provenance Acquired by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1913; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1913