Lot Essay
This model is mentioned in Kändler's work notes for April 1744 as '1 aur Italienischen Comödie gehörige Figur, Doctor genannt...welche ebenfalls für den Herzog von Weissenfels bestellet sind' (1 figure belonging to the Italian Comedy, called Doctor... which is also ordered for the Duke of Weissenfels), see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 310, no. 106 for the reference and a similar example.
Kändler's model of Dottore Boloardo is loosely based on the engraving 'Habit de Docteur Ancien' by François Joullain from Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1728.
Dottore Boloardo was a graduate of the University of Bologna and could be depicted as a man of letters, a philosopher, a lawyer, physician or alchemist. His role was central to the Commedia dell'Arte; as a self-centred and long-winded character who thought he knew everything yet did not understand anything. He was given to misquoting and contradicting himself and as a result becomes the dupe of the troupe.
For a similar example in the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collectin in the Historisches Museum, Basel, see Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century, London, 1972, Vol. 1, p. 329, no. 8.
Kändler's model of Dottore Boloardo is loosely based on the engraving 'Habit de Docteur Ancien' by François Joullain from Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1728.
Dottore Boloardo was a graduate of the University of Bologna and could be depicted as a man of letters, a philosopher, a lawyer, physician or alchemist. His role was central to the Commedia dell'Arte; as a self-centred and long-winded character who thought he knew everything yet did not understand anything. He was given to misquoting and contradicting himself and as a result becomes the dupe of the troupe.
For a similar example in the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collectin in the Historisches Museum, Basel, see Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century, London, 1972, Vol. 1, p. 329, no. 8.