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On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Figure

ca. 1757 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This figure of a Chinese boy is one of a group of seventeen themed figures designed as table decoration by the great modeller at the Nymphenburg factory, Franz Anton Bustelli. The group includes a priest and various children and adult attendants, some playing musical instruments or singing, others bowing down in worship and all positioned around the central small figure of a idol or 'pagod' seated on a tall pedestal.

Bustelli's figure illustrates the continuing fascination for the exotic in fashionable society. Oriental figures had been modelled by Kändler at the influential Meissen porcelain factory from about 1740 onwards. However, an interesting fresco in the Chinese pavilion (Pagodenburg) in the grounds of Nymphenburg castle, executed in by Johann Anton Gumpp in 1719, may have inspired Bustelli to use this particular format for his integrated group. It shows an idol figure seated on a towering pedestal surrounded by a group of worshippers.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Hard-paste porcelain, moulded and glazed
Brief description
Figure of a child in chinese dress
Physical description
Hard-paste white glazed porcelain figure of a Chinese boy wearing long flowing robes, standing singing with his head inclined over his left shoulder and his right leg forward, his arms outstretched as if swaying to music or dancing.
Dimensions
  • Height: 11.8cm
  • Width: 11.4cm
  • Depth: 13.7cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
impressed shield mark (on upper surface of base to rear)
Subjects depicted
Summary
This figure of a Chinese boy is one of a group of seventeen themed figures designed as table decoration by the great modeller at the Nymphenburg factory, Franz Anton Bustelli. The group includes a priest and various children and adult attendants, some playing musical instruments or singing, others bowing down in worship and all positioned around the central small figure of a idol or 'pagod' seated on a tall pedestal.

Bustelli's figure illustrates the continuing fascination for the exotic in fashionable society. Oriental figures had been modelled by Kändler at the influential Meissen porcelain factory from about 1740 onwards. However, an interesting fresco in the Chinese pavilion (Pagodenburg) in the grounds of Nymphenburg castle, executed in by Johann Anton Gumpp in 1719, may have inspired Bustelli to use this particular format for his integrated group. It shows an idol figure seated on a towering pedestal surrounded by a group of worshippers.
Bibliographic references
  • Ziffer, Alfred. Nymphenburger Porezellan Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 1997. No. 79, p. 55. Catalogue of the Bäuml Collection exhibited at the Nymphenburg Palace, Munich
  • Eikelmann, Renate (ed). Bustelli, Nymphenburger Porzellanfiguren des Rokoko Includes essays by Katharina Hantschmann, Alfred Ziffer, Utta Bach, Peter Volk etc. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2004. Catalogue of exhibition held at the Bayerishces Nationalmuseum, Munich, November 2004- March 2005. 246 p. and 464 p., no. 125
Collection
Accession number
C.80-1929

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Record createdAugust 15, 2006
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