These two figures were designed for the first of the Meissen altar garnitures which was modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler in 1735 as a gift from Augustus III of Saxony to Cardinal Annibale Albani di St. Clement which were presented in 1736.
Cardinal Annibale Albani di St. Clement, called “Cardinal St. Clemens” in the contemporary reports, was a nephew of Pope Clement XI and brother of the noted antiquarian, collector and diplomat Cardinal Alessandro Albani. He received gifts for having laid the groundwork for the wedding in 1738 of Maria Amalia, the eldest daughter of Augustus III, to Charles VII, the new Bourbon King in Naples and for the Concordat signed with Rome in 1737.
The garniture consisted of two apostle figures (Peter and Paul), six four-part candlesticks, a cross with pedestal and coral corpus, three frames for the mass canon, the foot and pierced cup for the metal bowl of the chalice, two ewers for water and wine and a bell. They were sent to Rome, but the cardinal subsequently presented them to the cathedral in Urbino in 1749. They remain in the Albani Diocesan Museum of Urbino.[1]
Museo Diocesano Albani, Urbino
In July 1737 another garniture with the same elements but with 12 apostle figures was ordered for the dowager Empress Wilhelmine Amalia, these are now in the Schatzkammer in Vienna.
Kaendler makes three mentions of the apostles Peter and Paul in his work reports between September and December 1735, and in January 1736 he ‘corrected’ 14 apostles which suggests that there were seven pairs made in all.[2] He refers to the commission as the “Römische Bestellung”. The report also notes that parts of the service were based on drawings sent from Rome.
These two apostles are based on the large marble sculptures in the Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano, in Rome by Pierre-Etienne Monnot (1657-1733).[iii]
Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano, in Rome by Pierre-Etienne Monnot
The crown prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony visited Rome in 1739 and in the specification of pieces presented to his hosts were two sets of the apostle Paul and Peter, one described as white.[iv] Two white pairs of these saints remain in Dresden.
The date of 1735 is an interesting moment in the development of Kaendler’s career. His work on the large animals for the Japanese Palace was coming to an end and it just predates his work on the smaller scale figures such as the commedia dell’arte which he began to work on in the second half of the 1730s.
Our figures both have a pierced hole behind their necks to hold the gilt-bronze halos that appear on the figures in Urbino. Of the seven sets that Kaendler appears to have made, the most perfectly formed would have been those used as diplomatic gifts, our figures with their firing cracks were used elsewhere.
Condition:
Firing cracks, losses to end of St Peter’s keys, chips
St Paul with a clean break through the shoulder and wrist and a missing index finger restored, chip to corner of Gospel
Andres-Acevedo 2023
Sarah-Katharina Andres-Acevedo, Die autonomen figürlichen Plastiken Johann Joachim Kaendlers und seiner Werkstatt zwischen 1731 und 1748, (2023)
Cassidy-Geiger 2008
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Princes and Porcelain on the Grand Tour of Italy’, Fragile Diplomacy Meissen Porcelain for European Courts, chapter 10, pp. 209 – 255, (Yale University Press, 2008)
Our thanks to Maureen Cassidy-Geiger for the photographs of the Albani garniture
SOLD
—————————————————————————————————–
[1] Cassidy-Geiger 2008, pp. 212 & 213.
[2] Andres-Acevedo 2023, Vol. 2, pp. 46 & 47, nos. 95 & 96.
[iii] St Peter is after the marble of 1708 -1711, St Paul after the marble of 1704-1708.
[iv] Cassidy-Geiger 2008, pp. 341 & 342.