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| Meissen Porcelain Figurine The Victoria & Albert Museum |
This figure of
Harlequin is rendered in hard-paste porcelain which has been painted in
enamels. Made by Johann Joachim Kändler around 1740 for Germany’s Meissen
Porcelain Factory, Harlequin leans against
a stump with a monkey held behind his right knee. He seems to be using the monkey as some sort
of instrument. He’s pulling the
screaming monkey's tail with his right hand while playing a pipe which is held
in his left hand. A screaming monkey was
apparently the unofficial musical sponsor of the Eighteenth Century. I kid, of course, but I’ve seen a good many
works of art which involve monkeys in musical agony.
This is one of
a set of Commedia dell’Arte figures by Kändler.
Many of the figures depicts Harlequin in various, brightly colored
outfits. Here, he is wearing a grey hat
with a turquoise rosette, a white ruff, a lozenge-“diapered” jacket in red,
blue and yellow with trousers with plum colored stripes, yellow shoes and blue
rosettes. The base of the figure is embellished with flowers and leaves in
colors which match Harlequin’s suit.
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