A Pair Of Meissen Porcelain Mythological Figural Groups

A Monumental Meissen Porcelain Figural Group of Apollo and the Nine Muses on Mount Parnassus. Comprised of sixteen interlocking parts. Apollo standing holding a lyre and with Pegasus besides a tree, atop a rocky outcrop detailed with foliage and waterfalls above nine goddesses: Calliope, seated and shown writing, representing eloquence and epic poetry. Clio, seated with an open book and blowing a trumpet, representing history. Erato, seated and holding a kithara, representing science and the arts Euterpe, seated and holding a flute, representing music. Melpomene, seated holding a knife and with one hand to her head, representing tragedy. Thalia, seated and holding aloft mask, representing comedy and idyllic poetry. Urania, seated with telescope and globe, representing astronomy and astrology, Polyhymnia, standing with one hand raised and holding a book, representing sacred poetry. Terpsichore, standing, representing dance. Each piece exceptionally finely detailed and painted. The base portions with rocaille edges. On a later black polished wooden base. Multiple blue crossed swords marks. Each piece titled to underside. German, Circa 1880. Mount Parnassus, is a spur of the Pindus Mountains in central Greece and was sacred to the ancient Greeks and in mythology to Apollo, the god of music and poetry and of the Sun and light. Mount Parnassus the mythical centre of poetry, music, and learning in ancient Greece was a popular theme in Barqoue and Rococo art, often substitutable with Athena’s arrival at Mount Helicon from the fifth book of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, where she asks the Muses to show her the new spring which gushed forth from the spot where Pegasus “with his hoof of horn opened the earth” (V, 250-260). Here, the mountain, formed from rugged rock cliffs, culminates in a plateau on which the youthful Apollo stands and plays the lyre. The Castalian spring flows from beneath Pegasus’ hoof, representing the source of inspiration and attracting the nine muses, who embody the arts and inspire creation through song, music, and dance. Mount Parnassus was created at the Meissen porcelain manufactory as a table centrepiece and an earlier version, apparently with only five muses, is listed in the inventory of the pastry shop of the Meissen manufactory manager and cabinet minister Heinrich Graf Brühl in 1753. The storage in the pastry shop of approximately 3,000 objects and dishes, including many individual parts for centrepieces, is related to their function as table decorations, replacing decorations previously made by the confectioner from perishable materials such as sugar or wax. The purpose of this table decoration was as a feast for the eyes to accompany the feast of the banquet. The sculptural figurines often depicted a particular theme, with characters drawn from theatre and opera, from classical mythology or pastoral idylls. Allegories and mythological themes, such as the glorification of fine arts, were also popular. Stylistically, Mount Parnassus fits Kändler’s style of the 1740s, and was sold by Brühl in 1762 to Frederick the Great of Prussia who used mythology as a means of self-expression and had already ordered individual figures of Apollo and the Muses as table decorations in 1744. Today it is in the Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt (inv. no. M.L. 41). There is another version of Mount Parnassus, from the collection of Prince Alexander Dolgorukoff, in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. The present version dates to the second half of the nineteenth century when there was a great revival of Kändler rococo figurines which were reissued and a “Second Rococo”. Another nineteenth century example is in the collection of the Museo Francesco Borgogna, Italy (inv. 1906, XIII, 19-20). These nineteenth century versions were made by the Meissen factory using Kändler's period models. It is recorded that a new version of Mount Parnassus, dating to the 1880s, was part of the Royal Porcelain collection in Dresden: 'In the porcelain collection there is a new version from the 1880s based on the old models, the largest group of this genre, the Parnassus, which shows the named muses all around on the lower part of the rock, each practising their own art, while on the top there is Apollo with the lyre and next to it the Castalian spring rises from the hoofbeat of Pegasus. Each figure is executed individually with its rocky background, and all the pieces are then fitted together, as we have already seen in his earlier, larger compositions. The rock pieces are finished off like a pedestal at the bottom with Rococo ornaments.' (Jean Louis Sponsel, Kabinettstücke der Meissner Porzellan-manufaktur von Johann Joachim Kändler, Leipzig, 1900, pp. 203-204). Kunst und kunsthandwerk; monatsschrift herausgegeben vom Österreichischen museum fuer kunst und industrie, Vienna, 1894, v.7 pt.1, p.133. Kari Berling, Das Meißner Porzellan und seine Geschichte. Leipzig 1900, S. 99, 187-200. Helmuth Gröger, Johann Joachim Kaendler. Dresden, 1956. Peter W Meister, Franz Adrian Dreier, Figürliche Keramik aus zwei Jahrtausenden. Kat Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt. Frankfurt 1964, Nr. 90. Rainer Rückert, Meißener Porzellan, 1710-1810. Kat. Ausst. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum München. München 1966. Stefan Bursche, Tafelzier des Barock. München 1974, Abb. 300. "Tafelaufsatz, Der Parnass", Auswahlkatalog, Museum für Kunsthandwerk (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), 1987, pp. 86-87. Alfred Ziffer, ‘Meissener Porzellanplastik für fürstliches Interieur und Zeremoniell’, Keramos, Issue 241/242, pp. 29–52. 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