A MEISSEN GROUP OF COLUMBINE AND SCARAMOUCHE ‘DIE HAHNREIGRUPPE’

This group, most probably intended as a caricature of cuckoldry, was probably created on behalf of the Saxon state architect Johann Christoph Knöffel and is mentioned in the manufactory work records in February and March 1741: ‘6. Ein Groupgen, nehml. Eine Manns Figur mit Vogelgebaue, worin ein Papagey, neben ihm stehet ein Frauenzimmer....' (6. A group, particularly a man with a birdcage and a parrot, and next to him a woman). The group is mentioned again in Kändler's Taxa where the entry begins 'Groupgen vor den Ober Land-Bau Meister Knösseln...' together with a detailed description. For an illustration of a similar group from the Pauls-Eisenbeiss collection see Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte Fest der Komödianten, Stuttgart, 2001, p. 50, no. 28. Another example was sold in these Rooms on 3 November 1997, lot 280.

Johann Christoph Knöffel (1686-1752), to whom Kändler erroneously refers to as Knösseln, was the son of a master builder who become a builder and architect for the Saxon state and is now considered one of the founders of the Saxon rococo style. He worked initially as a pupil of Zacharias Longuelune and Matthäus Pöppelman and was also influenced by French Classicism. In around 1734 he became Oberlandbaumeister (Senior State Architect) taking over from Pöppelman on his retirement. He spent most of his professional life in Dresden working primarily for the Saxon Prime Minister Heinrich von Brühl for whom he designed and built the 'Brühlsche Glories' which included a palace, library, gallery and gardens.