A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF IL CAPITANO SPAVENTO FROM THE 'DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES'
Lot 49

A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF IL CAPITANO SPAVENTO FROM THE 'DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES'

CIRCA 1744, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK TO BACK OF BASE

Closed3 June 2015

Price Realised

GBP 2,500

More Information

How to sell

A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF IL CAPITANO SPAVENTO FROM THE 'DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES'
CIRCA 1744, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK TO BACK OF BASE
Modelled by J.J. Kändler and P. Reinicke, standing before a tree-stump, on a mound base applied with flowers and leaves (sword restuck at the hilt with restoration and regilding to handle, restoration to hat brim, small chip to one finger, edge of jacket and corner of left cuff)
5½ in. (14 cm.) high

Specialist note

In his work notes for August 1744 Reinicke describes: '1 Figur, Capitain Italien, in Thon bossirt' (1 figure, Italian Captain, modelled in clay), see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, p. 179, no. 962 for a similar example. The present model is after the engraving 'Habit de Capitain Italien' by François Joullain from Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire de Théâtre Italien, Paris, 1728.

Il Capitano, a braggart soldier, was usually depicted as being of Spanish or Southern Italian origin. In the 18th century his role in the plays and scenarios came to be replaced by that of Scaramouche. For a similar example in the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection (inv. no. 1975.1086.5) in the Historisches Museum, Basel, see Dr. Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century, London, 1972, Vol. I, p. 328.