Link only available on sub pages

The Elector Johann Georg III was particularly proud of his title, the “Mars of Saxony”.  In the Relief of Vienna in 1683, he successfully led Saxony’s forces against the Ottoman army that was besieging the Austrian capital. This imposing tankard commemorates his victory. In the ivory carving on the body of the tankard, the mythical battle of the Lapiths and the wild Centaurs blends with the victorious campaign of the “Mars saxonicus” against the Turks.

An equestrian statuette of Johann Georg crowns the lid of this splendid piece. The victor is wearing a suit-of-armour and carries a commander’s baton in his right hand. He has his rearing horse firmly under control. At his feet lie putti with symbols identifying the Elector as a patron of the arts and sciences.

The scene on the body of the tankard depicts the battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. In Greek mythology, the Lapiths were a noble people descended from the god Apollo. Among their enemies were the violent Centaurs – hybrid creatures with human torsos and equine bodies. Nevertheless, the Lapiths invited the Centaurs to the wedding of their king, Pirithous. But when the centaurs were drunk, they tried to rape the Lapithian women. The hero Theseus led the Lapiths in a successful battle against the Centaurs.

On this decorative tankard, the noble Lapiths are conquering their enemy under a banner bearing the crossed swords of Saxony’s Electors.  A Herculean Lapith holds it aloft on the front of the tankard.