‘This ceramic plate is an empreinte originale, made from a mold designed by Picasso and produced in numerous examples. The original ceramic used for the plaster-of-Paris matrix looked similar to the present example. Subsequent plates were produced by mold, whereby the incised lines would translate into the raised features of the goat’s head visible here. The same design was used for several plates. This example is listed as number 403 in the Ramié inventory of works created in the Madoura ceramic workshop at Vallauris. Other plates, also showing the goat’s head in slight relief, were painted in different colors.
In antiquity the goat symbolized lust or gluttony. The animal is a frequent motif in Picasso’s works, especially in his three-dimensional objects and graphic works on bacchanalian themes. Still, the choice of subject can be considered eccentric. Imagine placing such a decorative plate before a dinner guest! The depiction of a goat might be interpreted as a remark on the sitter’s excessive or voracious appetite and is typical of the humor Picasso often displayed among friends. In viewing many of his ceramic works, it is important to bear in mind the artist’s sense of playfulness and mockery; the full impact of many of these “simple” objects depends upon one’s attentiveness to these amusing puns or clever innuendoes.
Picasso employed the goat’s head motif in his ceramics for more than a decade from 1950 until 1961. The majority of these works were executed in the early 1950. The Museum’s plate is dated on the reverse: 9.3.53. The white earthenware plate has been painted with slips producing the black, indigo, and terracotta colors. A transparent vitreous glaze has been applied’.
Text: GIMÉNEZ, Carmen (ed). Collection Museo Picasso Málaga. Malaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2003, pp. 388-389.
