Augustus the Strong of Saxony (1670-1733) was a passionate collector of porcelain. He built his ‘Japanese Palace’ in the 1720s to house his vast collection of Far Eastern and Meissen porcelain. This goat is one of nearly 600 life-size animals and birds that he ordered from the Meissen factory for his porcelain menagerie, planned from 1730 onwards. In the event, technical problems and his death in 1733 led to the abandonment of the project before this number had been achieved.
Physical description
Figure of a goat, of white glazed hard-paste porcelain. Reclining postion, its head turned sharply to right rear; double-curved horns; shaggy coat.
Place of Origin
Meissen, Germany (made)
Date
ca. 1732 (made)
1732 (modelled)
Artist/maker
Kändler, Johann Joachim, born 1706 - died 1775 (modeller)
Meissen porcelain factory (manufacturer)
Materials and Techniques
Hard-paste porcelain
Marks and inscriptions
'Z.' (2)
Dimensions
Length: 66 cm, Height: 55.9 cm, Weight: 25 kg
Object history note
From the porcelain menagerie commissioned for the 'Japanese Palace', Dresden, by Augustus the Strong (1694/7-1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and subsequently in the Royal Saxon Collections, Dresden (sold Berlin, Lepke, 12 Oct 1920, lot 195).. In production 17 December 1732. Four examples of this model are now known, the others being in the Porcelain Collections in the Zwinger Palace, Dresden (2), and at Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Descriptive line
Porcelain figure of a goat, white, modelled by J.J. Kaendler, Meissen porcelain factory, Germany, about 1732.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Hildyard, Robin. European Ceramics. London : V&A Publications, 1999. 144 p., ill. ISBN 185177260X
Honey, W. B. Dresden china: an introduction to the study of Meissen porcelain. London: A. & C. Black, 1934, Pl. XXI (c), p. 85.
Samuel Wittwer, The Gallery of Meissen Animals: Augustus the Strong's Menagerie for the Japanese Palace in Dresden, 2006, passim and pp. 309-310.
Production Note
Attribution from the manuscript catalogue dates from about 1970 and was compiled by William Hutton of the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
Materials
Hard paste porcelain
Techniques
Glazed
Subjects depicted
Goats (animals)
Categories
Porcelain; Ceramics; Figures & Decorative ceramics
Collection code
CER
