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A MEISSEN FIGURE OF THE MADONNA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND A GROUP OF ST. JOSEPH AND THE INFANT CHRIST

CIRCA 1737, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARKS

Details

A MEISSEN FIGURE OF THE MADONNA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND A GROUP OF ST. JOSEPH AND THE INFANT CHRIST
CIRCA 1737, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARKS
The Madonna standing with her hands clasped in prayer, her head raised, wearing flowing robes gilt with scattered sprigs, the hem with flowerheads and scrolls, with a gilt-metal halo, on a globe applied with three winged cherub heads among clouds and moulded with the serpent biting a piece of fruit, on a stepped octagonal base; St. Joseph, in flowing gilt-edged robes, holding the infant Christ at his waist and supporting a cross with his raised left arm, each with gilt-metal halo, standing on a spreading pinched-rectangular socle base with canted corners moulded and incised with scale-pattern panels between scrolls
7¾ in. (18.7 cm.) and 7¼ in. (18.5 cm.) high (2)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The present figures are typical of the early religious works modelled at the factory by Kirchner and Kändler. Larger altar figures of the Madonna are widely considered to be masterpieces of both artists career at Meissen. The subjects appear in the work records of both sculptors from about 1733 onwards, thereby making a firm attribution problematic. For the figure of the Madonna of the Immaculate Conception see Ernst Zimmermann, Meissener Porzellan (Leipzig, 1926), pl. 153, W.B. Honey, Dresden China (London, 1954), pl. lxvb, for examples of both see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810 (Munich, 1966), nos. 901 and 904.

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