Singer for the Monkey Band
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, and gilding
Dimensions
12.4 × 7 × 6.1 cm (4 7/8 × 2 3/4 × 2 3/8 in.)
Classification
sculpture
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
146687
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In 1733, the sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler became the chief modeler at the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, a position he held until his death in 1775. Kändler, along with his assistant Peter Reinicke, devised novel and innovative forms and figures for Meissen porcelain. One of the most admired products of the factory were the monkey bands, witty examples of 18th-century singerie: subjects in which monkeys literally “ape” the behavior of supposedly more sophisticated humans. The first version o...
About the Artist
Meissen Porcelain Manufactory
The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, established on June 6, 1710, by Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in the Albrechtsburg castle at Meissen near Dresden, marked Europe's breakthrough in producing true hard-paste porcelain. Building on experiments by physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, who perfected the formula using local...