Meissen for royalty

Magazine Antiques, July, 2001 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Augustus II (the Strong), elector of Saxony (r. 1694-1733) and king of Poland (r. 1697-1704 and 1709-1733), possessed that rare combination of traits that makes a great collector--excellent taste for both the rare and the exotic and the deep pockets necessary to indulge every desire. This is no better exemplified than in his commission for a group of nearly life-sized porcelain sculptures of birds and other animals that he intended for the long gallery in the Japanese Palace in Dresden. The commission was an important one for the Meissen factory which used two exacting and artistically gifted men, Johann Gottlieb Kirchner and Johann Joachim Kandler, to execute it between 1730 and 1735. Figures continued to be created until about 1740, when work on the long gallery ceased.

Making figures that were sometimes more than four feet tall was incredibly difficult at the time. The figures were conceived to be painted naturalistically in enamel colors, but this proved to be beyond the technology of the time, so they remained white. This group of historically important and beautiful figures is in the state collection at the former royal palace, the Zwinger, in Dresden, and due to their fragility, they are rarely loaned. However, in a partnership between the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen of Dresden, fourteen of these porcelain animals may be seen at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles until January 31, 2002, in an exhibition entitled A Royal Menagerie: Porcelain Animals from Dresden.

Augustus the Strong had one of the most important porcelain collections in Europe, which was greatly influenced by the one Louis XIV installed in the Trianon de Porcelaine at Versailles. During a tour in 1687 Augustus visited the gardens there, which contained a menagerie and a maze with bronze animals.

Some years after Augustus's death a visitor described the long gallery in the Japanese Palace as "furnished with all kinds of birds and animals, both native and foreign, made of pure porcelain in their natural sizes and colors, and in those pieces that are already completed one cannot sufficiently admire the artistry and beauty."

The large size of the animals required both internal and external supports to prevent them from collapsing in the kiln during firing. After firing, indeed, some of the animals did have cracks and discolorations, which is why they could not be fired again with enamel colors. A lacquerer in Augustus's court, Christian Reinow, painted some of the figures, but over the years the colors separated from the porcelain, and much of the paint was removed in the nineteenth century. Over the centuries pieces from this commission as well as pieces made for others at the same time or later, including some which retain their painted decoration, have made their way into other public and private collections.

The hand of the modelers Kirchner and Kandler reveal two different aesthetic approaches. Each enjoyed the title of Modellmeister, first Kirchner and, after his departure in 1733, Kandler. Both had access to the live animals at the royal menagerie and stuffed specimens in the natural history collection at court, yet Kandler's figures convey a greater sense of naturalism and are more expressive than those by Kirchner, who seems to have relied more heavily on prints and drawings.

A catalogue of the same title as the exhibition is written by Samuel Wittwer, curator of the ceramics collection at the Prussian Palaces and Garden Foundation and of the archives of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. It is published in paper covers only and is available by telephoning Getty Trust Publications at 310-440-6059 or through their Web site (www.getty.edu/bookstore).