CIRCA 1743, PRESSNUMMER 25

Kändler's Taxa records 'Ein Brust bild ein aeltliches Fraue n Zimmer in Klage Habit vorstellend 14 Thalers, 1 Brust Bild v or den Prinz Albani, die Mutter Gottes vorstellend 14 Thaler.' These two subjects have always been taken to be the same. The appearance of the present bust, hitherto unknown to scholars, clarifies the situation. What has until know been described as the Mater Dolorosa is much closer to Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in St. Maria della Vittoria in Rome, executed between 1645 and 1652. It is therefore likely that a long-standing question of mistaken identity has been brought to light. The present lot is in fact the Madonna made for Cardinal Albani and the other bust, which exists in at least three examples is in fact intended to depict St. Teresa. Whatever the case as to the identities of the two saintly figures, there can be little doubt that they were conceived to balance each other. This view is supported by the close similarity of the paste in which the two busts were made and by the fact that they both bear the same Pressmummer, 25.

The literature of the so-called Mater Dolorosa, which exists in at least three examples, is extensive. For a recent discussion see H. Morley-Fletcher: Catalogue of the Pflueger Collection (n.d.), Vol. I, p. 40.

Cf. the example from the Klemperer Collection, formerly at Dresden and sold in these Rooms on 30 September 1991, lot 175, which was illustrated by Ludwig Scnorr von Carolsfeld, Porzellan Sammlung Gustav von Klemperer (1928), pl. 69, p. 194 and by Ingelore Menzhausen, Alt-Meissner Porzellan in Dresden (1988), no. 97.