Figure of masked Harlequin holding a sausage and a cherry in hard-paste porcelain painted in enamels and gilded, modelled by J.J. Kändler, made by Meissen porcelain factory, Germany, ca. 1740

Figure of a masked Harlequin in hard-paste porcelain painted in enamels and gilded. Leaning against a stump, in a grey hat with an upturned brim decorated with a turquoise rosette, his right knee raised, holding a cherry in his left hand and a curved sausage in his right. His tunic is lozenge-diapered in red, black, yellow and plum with gilt trim, his right trouser leg in red, his left leg grey, his right shoe black and turquoise, his left, red and turquoise. The pad base decorated with green leaves.

Given by Mrs O. J. Finney in memory of Oswald James Finney

In the 2001 Stuttgart exhibition catalogue (see reference below), Ulrich Pietsch gives an account of the production of Italian comedy figures at Meissen . There is a short essay, translated by Sebastian Kuhn, in the English summary within the slip cover of the main catalogue from which the following information is taken.

Kändler was appointed as modeller in 1731 at the Meisen factory. His first Commedia figure was in 1736 and depicted Harlequin with the bagpipes and a dog at his feet. There followed many different variations on the different characters.

'Kändler's intentions in creating such comedy types are as little known as who commissioned them. They appear not to have been used at all as table decoration, either on the royal dining tables or those of Graf Brühl, as the inventory of the royal 'Hof-Conditorei' (Court Confectioner) and the 'Herrn Premier- Ministre Reichs Grafen von Brühl Excellenz Conditorey' do not list a single figure of this type. These figures must be traced back to commissions by individuals, and many may have been made to commissions by individuals, and many may have been made on Kändler's own initiative.'

'The sources which inspired Kändler's fantasy were, on the one hand, the theatre performances themselves which he evidently frequently attended, and on the other, the engravings, which also provided him inspiration for other works. Among these should be mentioned an engraving by Joullain from Louis Riccoboni's 'Histoire du Théâtre Italien' (Paris, 1728), which depicts on plate 2 a Harlequin with a sausage and slapstick, which Kändler turned into a masterly porcelain figure, add above all, engravings after paintings by Watteau, such as 'Départ des Comédiens italiens', on which the deeply bowing Harlequin is based. Watteau's 'Gilles' is also reflected in the design of Kändler's Pierrot.'

When considering any of Kändler's Commedia dell'Arte figures, the sculptor's delight in his subject matter is there to be seen in his expressive modelling, exaggerated poses, enhanced by the models' brilliant colouring:

'Invention and experience - derived from pictorial sources as well as from nature - are thus combined in an excellent and striking work of art. Ignoring the spirit of the Enlightenment, and the fact that the Italian Comedy was barely maintained in Saxony after the Seven Years War, Kändler continued to create new models of comedy figures until shortly before his death in 1775, apparently in response to lively demand. In spite of Johann Joachim Winckelmann's indignation at the 'vulgar taste of works in porcelain' which was mostly 'formed into ridiculous dolls', a greater part of courtly society adhered to the aesthetic conceptions of the late Baroque much later than has often been assumed, particularly in the area of the decorative arts.'

This superbly modelled harlequin is one of the great early small-scale works by the artist who largely defined the sculptural conventions of the eighteenth-century porcelain figure: Johann Joachim Kändler. Kändler, the greatest porcelain modeller of the century, had been recruited for the Meissen factory by Augustus the Strong to create models for his life-size porcelain menagerie at Dresden. After excelling at large-scale work, he turned his attention to small figures in the later 1730s, in doing so inventing the porcelain figure as we know it today. He went on to create or supervise the creation of about 1,000 models during his remarkably long career, including figures for collectors’ cabinets and interior decoration, but also for display at grand dinners.

In the 1740s Kändler devised a wide range of porcelain figures for table decoration. The most popular figures he made however, were probably characters from the Italian Opera, the Commedia dell'Arte, which was a popular satirical travelling theatre, from which the miniature Punch and Judy developed in the 1800s. These figures are not in fact recorded as having been used as table decoration and it is possible they were commissioned by individuals or made on Kändler's own initiative.

Kändler portrayed the colourful figure of Harlequin in many postures and guises. Although this figure of Harlequin has the black half-mask typically associated with the character, he was often depicted without any mask, adding exaggerated facial features, moustaches, black patches and warts instead. Like most of Kändler’s Italian Comedy models, this figure was a virtuoso cabinet piece for collectors. Kändler evidently keenly enjoyed the expressive grimaces and contorted poses of Italian Comedy actors, not to mention their bawdy humour, clearly alluded to here by the sausage and cherry he is holding.

C.15-1984