TWENTY FIGURES AND THE DESK FROM THE MONKEYS' ORCHESTRA

Description:

Meissen, 20th century
H. 12,5/16 cm
Conductor with music stand ( the music stand 2nd choice), 2 violinists (1 bow slightly damaged), 2 female singers, harpist, 3 horn players, 1 flutist, drum porter and drummer, bassoonist, 2 lute players (1 of whom is second choice and slightly chipped), cellist, trumpeter, spinet player on a monkey, monkey with drum and flute (the drumstick restored), oboist (the oboe is broken). Underglaze blue sword marks (mostly first-grade, see above), model numbers, pressed marks. Polychrome painted.
Private Collection Northrhine-Westphalia
Singeries - A reflection of 18th-century court society
The monkey figures, dressed in elaborate Rococo attire, parody the upper echelons of society and their airs and graces in a highly exaggerated manner. According to historical accounts, they are also said to be a caricature of Count Brühl’s chapel in particular. The male monkeys take on the roles of musicians, whilst the female monkeys are depicted as singers. The exact date of the chapel’s creation remains unverifiable to this day. However, based on the mould numbers and the purchase of 19 such figures by Madame de Pompadour, their creation can be traced back to the year 1753. Presumably created by Johann Joachim Kaendler and revised in 1765/66 with the collaboration of Peter Reinicke, the monkeys are regarded as the ‘most whimsical classic of Meissen Baroque’ (www.meissen.com). In the mid-18th century, depictions of monkeys adopting human traits in a parodic manner enjoyed great popularity, much like chinoiserie. It can be surmised that, amongst other things, the murals by Christophe Hüet in the so-called ‘Monkey Cabinet’ at the Château de Chantilly may well have served as a model for the Meissen monkey band. Another possible French model could be a monkey orchestra from the Mennecy workshop dating from the 1740s. Similarly, an alabaster chapel from Venice, dating from around 1745 and housed in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, bears a strong resemblance to Kaendler’s chapel. This genre, known as ‘singeries’ (from the French ‘singe’ = monkey), was not only rendered in porcelain but can also be found in murals, ceilings and carpets.