Medallion with "Health is Restored" c. late 18th century

This striking medallion, created by the Wedgwood Manufactory, features a winged figure—likely a representation of Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health—adorning an urn, while a bust sits above. The inscription reads "Health is Restored," marking the medallion as an object of celebration, perhaps after a period of illness. Such imagery is no isolated incident; it draws upon a deep well of cultural memory. The motif of a winged figure, associated with the divine and the restorative, echoes across centuries and geographies. Consider the Winged Victory of Samothrace, or even images of angels from the Christian tradition, who descend as intermediaries from the divine realm. The symbolism of the urn, too, is potent—at once funereal, evoking loss and remembrance, and also a vessel, capable of being filled anew, suggesting the cyclical nature of life and health. It all taps into our collective subconscious, where health and vitality are eternally yearned for. This cyclical return reminds us that the images we create and contemplate are never truly new, but always a reiteration, a reinterpretation, of what has come before.