Selected Meissen and Other Ceramics from the Collection of Henry H. Arnhold
Selected Meissen and Other Ceramics from the Collection of Henry H. Arnhold
A RARE MEISSEN 'COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE' GROUP OF 'THE INDISCREET HARLEQUIN' CIRCA 1740
Auction Closed
October 24, 05:26 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A RARE MEISSEN 'COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE' GROUP OF 'THE INDISCREET HARLEQUIN' CIRCA 1740
modeled by Johann Joachim Kändler, Beltrame, seated on his cloak on a small rockwork mound, embracing Columbine, seated in his lap, while Harlequin at his feet attempts to peer up Columbine's skirt, all on a shaped-mound base applied with flowers and foliage.
Height: 6½ in.
16.5 cm
Angela Gräfin von Wallwitz, Munich, March 2006
Siemen, 1995, pp. 1-39, fig. 18
von Wallwitz, 2006, pp. 70-75, pp. 84-9, cat. no. 13
Cassidy-Geiger, 2008, no. 51, p. 263, illus.
This model depicts a sexual lazzo interruption in the Commedia dell'arte performance. The young lovers Beltrame and Columbine are so absorbed with each other, they fail to notice the cheeky Harlequin peeking up Columbine's skirt. Such sexually lewd moments were extremely popular in the Comedy and the actors would often use suggestive props such as slapsticks, daggers, enemas and sausages.
Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, Hew Haven, 2001, pp. 38 suggests this group may derive from two sources. Harlequin's pose could be based on the engraving by Gregorio Lambranzi from The New and Eccentric School of Theatrical Dancing, where Harlequin, reclining on the floor, reaches up between the legs of a blind beggar to steal from him. The couple's pose may derive from a series of twelve engravings The Amours of Columbine by Petrus Schenck, after drawings by Gérard-Joseph Xavery.. The author also reproduces these sources and illustrates a Meissen group of this subject in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, which is painted in a similar color palette to the present lot, particularly Columbine's skirt and Harlequin's costume.
Examples of this model were included in the collections of Walter von Pannwitz, sold, Hugo Helbing, Munich, October 24-25, 1905, lot 313, pl. LXII; Siegfried Salz, sold, Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, March 26-27, 1929, lot 19; Armand Esders, sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 19-20, 1941, lot 171; Gustav von Gerhardt, sold, Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, November 7, 1911, lot 85, subsequently in the Claude Cartier Collection, sold, Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc. Monaco S. A., Monte Carlo, November 25, 1979, lot 112a; and René Fribourg, sold, Sotheby's London, October 15, 1963, lot 484.