Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources

 

Winged mermaid at the stern of the stone barge at Vizcaya Mansion.

Photo by seekingmuseI

 

 

Nouveau siren of Inverloch

 

I was randomly exploring the southern Victorian coastline with Google Earth and admiring the ariel sculptural patterns, which were displaying a tremendous array of textures and colours. Near Inverloch, which is a coastal town on the edge of Bass Strait facing Tasmania, I noticed what alluded to be a large figurative form of a mermaid near the shoreline, albeit with a Brancusi like reductionist form and cubist face, gracefully swimming out to sea from the channel of an inlet. It didn’t require much of a stretch of the imagination to see the impressionistic feminine siren and with some light and contrast enhancement and further editing she looked more real. (see below).
Around fourteen months later, I was intrigued to see that a cruise liner called ‘Norwegian Star‘ had mysteriously became stranded 20km south of Inverloch while on a cruise to New Zealand. After a few days trying to start the engines and get cruising again, and to the distress of its 3000 passengers, it had to be towed over 150 kms back to Melbourne for maintenance, before resuming its trip. According to the local Australian Indigenous women, this strip of  coastline  belongs to the mernaids.
At least the ‘Norwegian Star’ fared better than the fate of the ‘Amazon’, which in 1863, on its way to Mauritius, lost its sails in a wild gale and ended up shipwrecked on the beach at Inverloch near the now aptly named Wreck Creek. At low tides it can still be seen, embedded about 3 meters in the sand. Maybe that’s why the Inverloch siren has an Art Nouveau era coiffure, as that style was emerging around the latter half of the 19th century. Some local sailors avoid navigating this inlet as quite a few smaller boats have sunk there.

 

Inverloch Mermaid (bottom right) from Google Earth

Bass Strait, Inverloch, Victoria

The white specks on the left are dwellings on the coastal fringe.

 

 

Inverloch Sirene – see original at end of post

 

 

Norwegian Star cruise ship stranded at Inverloch in Feburary, 2017, currently sailing around the Mediterranean from Venice.

 

 

 

Mermaid art, sculpture and lore

 

Mermaid sculpture — Mermaid Harbor. Norfolk VA

bobistraveling

 

 

Mermaids and tales from the ages

 

Seafarers of old feared mermaids because of their reputation for being able to enchant sailors and lure them into the water. The allure of a sirens voice made sailors steer off course.

In the book Physiologus, written in the Fifth Century AD in Greek by an unknown author, there is a portion dedicated to “The Nature of the Mermaid” which states:

This marvel dwells in an unstable place where the water subsides.
She sinks ships and causes suffering,
She sings sweetly —this siren—and has many voices,
Many and resonant, but they are very dangerous.
Sailors forget their steering because of her singing;
They slumber and sleep and wake too late,
And the ships sink in a whirlpool and cannot surface anymore.

 

Midsummer Night’s Mermaid Dream

William Shakespeare wrote Midsummer Night’s Dream between 1590 and 1594. In it, he writes:

“I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid’s music.”

 

 

White mermaid sculpture with mosaic background adorning the bar at Caesar’s Palace Hotel

Las Vegas

 

 

Mermaid sculpture near the promenade of the town of La Coruña in Spain’s Galicia region

Photo – Eric Nathan –  Alamy

In 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote in the ships journal that he spotted three mermaids rising high from the sea. The infamous English pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) reported seeing mermaids while sailing. Bartholomew Angelicus, in De Propietatibus Rerum, written in the 13th Century described a mermaid, and told of her stealing sailors from their ships.

 

 

Waylande Gregory Large Art Deco-Phoenician Style Melusine Vase

1930’s

 

 

‘Atargatis’ by Virginia Lee.

 

Atargatis was a Syrian Goddess of fertility, love, motherhood, and the sea and sky. She was sometimes depicted as a mermaid. The first appearance of mermaids in human culture seems to have occurred about 1000 BC in Assyria (roughly equivalent to present-day Syria plus the northern area of Iraq). In the mythology of Assyria, the beautiful fertility goddess Atargatis, became a mermaid after casting herself into a lake.

Atargatis eventually became known to the Greeks as Aphrodite Derceto and incorporated into Greek mythology. Greek mythology then expanded on the concept of mermaids, including in part the Nereids, the Tritons, the Sirens and Thessalonike (sister of Alexander the Great)

 

 

 

Baltic Sea mermaid sculpture – Klaipeda, Lithuania

 

 

Ian Thomas antique mermaid statue on Lord Street in Southport, England

 

 

The ‘Jalakanyaka Mermaid’ statue by Arun Sankar

Thiruvananthapuram, India

 

 

Italian Cantagalli Maiolica Pottery Vase – Snake Handles – Mermaids

 

 

‘Lola the mosaic mermaid’ on Mermaid Parade, Norfolk, Virginia

 

 

Nabeul mermaid sculpture at the seaside, Tunisia

 

 

Mermaid Inspirational Wall Sculpture by Fae Factory Artist-Dr Franky Dolan-(clay relief canvas painting-Mixed Media)

 

 

Thai mermaid with lotus flowers art painting

 

 

Melusine relief – The Château de Lusignan

 

 

Figural Zinc mermaid fountain – the water spouts from the merboy holding a conch shell

 

 

 

Art Nouveau Porcelain and bronze mermaid pitcher

 

 

Maui Mermaid wood carved sculpture – Dale Zarella

Hawaii

 

 

Jean Mayodon ceramic mermaid and merman sculpture

Lebreton Gallery San Francisco

 

 

Forlorn looking mermaid sculpture at the Blue Mermaid

San Francisco

 

Mermaid cup — Irina Zaytceva

 

 

Rene Lalique frosted glass Naïade (Large-Mermaid) statuette, 1920

This was used for a car mascot in 1925

 

 

Jean Pierre Augier conchshell mermaid

 

 

Leopold Park Mermaid Statue.

Photo © by Jan Poppe

 

 

Seated mermaid statue next to a lake

Madrid, Spain

 

Mermaid ‘Guanabara Mitológica’  – sculpted by Remo Bernucci

 

 

‘The Littlest Mermaid’  –  Nina Winters

 

 

Trafalgar Square mermaid statue

Created by William McMillan and Sir Charles Wheeler for the fountains designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens

 

 

‘Annabelle’ by Nathalie Seguin

 

 

‘High Tide’ – John Morris Sculptures

 

 

 

 

Art Nouveau Porcelain Mermaid and Dolphin Vase

 

Lifesize Mermaid Figurehead sculpture from bow of ship

 

 

‘La sirene’ – Marie Madeleine Gautier

 

 

Rene Buthaud Sirene melusine vase

 

 

 

Driftwood Sirene Sculpture by Debra Bernier

 

 

‘Water Woman ‘ —  Wangechi Mutu

Gladstone Gallery NY -2017

Photo David Regen

 

 

Delphin Massier Art Nouveau female figure vase with Islamic lustre glaze

 

 

Daydream Island mermaid sculptures by David Joffe

 

 

Art Nouveau figural table lamp with two mermaids,

c1900

 

 

Belle Epoque brooch – Carved Agate, Pearl, Gold ‘Naiad and Sturgeons’

 

 

 

 Bronze mermaid fountain, University of Birmingham, England

 

 

 

Bronze seated mermaid fountain in garden pool

 

 

 

Art Nouveau mermaid candle holder

 

 

 

Cast Bronze Mermaid Door Pull by Vadim Androusov 40’s

DRAGONETTE LTD

 

 

‘Ocean Breakers (The Sound)’ – Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Bocklin.

1879

 

 

Mermaid Riding Seahorse Sculpture by Sergio Bustamante

 

 

Mermaid Shaped Solid Patinated Bronze Sconce, France, 1950’s

Ist dibs

 

 

Jean Mayodon

 

 

Mermaid with Trident Dish Nyland Gunnar

1944

 

Terracotta Mexican Mermaid Sirena

photo by Teyacapan, via Flickr

 

 

 

Mid-Century Modern Rene Buthaud French Ceramic Glazed Vase

BERTIL BERNHARDT, Miami

 

 

Minton Majolica putti, mermaid-merman pitcher

 

 

White porcelain Mermaid Vase

 

 

 

 

Art Nouveau bronze mermaid glass goblet

 

 

Thailand outdoor mermaid sculpture with creepers, Chang Mai

 

 

 

Royal Dalton Hand painted mermaid vase

 

 

Large white mermaid statue

Philosophy Antiques and Design, Laguna Beach

 

 

 

Puerto Vallarta —  Mermaid and Merman statues

 

 

Sergio Bustamante siren sculpture

 

 

 

Mermaid Vase Modern Pottery — Jonathan Adler

 

Mermaid sculptures, Nabeul, Tunsia

 

 

Vintage Royal Haeger Mermaid Planter

14 inches tall

 

 

Warszawska Syrenka sculpture, Poland

 

 

Bronze mermaid statue sculpture at seaside

Hebei, China D&Z Sculpture

 

 

Medieval Mermaid plate,  1475 –  1500,

The Victoria and Albert Museum

 

Original Google Earth image – click to expand