A Group in Vienese Porcelain, ca. 1780, ca. 1780

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Dealer

Kollenburg Antiquairs BV

Price

€ 3.500 ($ 4 450.25 U.S. dollars)

Status

Available

Period

ca. 1780

Material

email sur bisquit porcelain

Description

On an uneven base a man lies backwards and raises his goblet to a young woman with an amphora sitting above him. Two children and a goat complete the scene. The round object is possibly set up to serve as a centerpiece.

Scenes from the Vienese Court, the commedia del’arte and Greek mythology were favourites to be caught in porcelain. By the end of the 18th century objects with mythological subjects were part of the intellectual atmosphere of the Enlightment. They were inspired by Greek and Roman classical sculpting as well as by classic literature and plays, albeit in very free interpretations. This might be such a classic scene. Between 1744 and 1784 Johann Joseph Niermayer was arts teacher at the Wiener Akademie as well as leading model maker of the Wiener Porzellan Manufaktur. Niermayer was a distinct classicist who designed many deities with typical Greek profiles as we see in the female figure here. This woman or maybe the entire object could arguably be designed by Niermayer.

Literature: Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Porzellan der europäischen Fabriken, Braunschweig, 1956. Elisabeth Sturm-Bednarczyk en Claudia Jobst, Viennese Porcelain of the Neo-classical Period, Wenen, 2000.