Limited Masterworks Monkey with Pear

The figure Monkey with Pear was modelled by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner in 1731. The ancient Egyptians worshipped monkeys and they were kept as pets at European courts from as early as the 14th century. Christians see the monkey as symbolising luxury and vanity, along with cunning, lasciviousness and hedonism. Augustus the Strong dreamed of turning his Japanese Palais in Dresden into the largest and most prestigious home for porcelain in the world. As a result, no effort was spared to create new works at Meissen from 1731 onwards, including life-size models of animals that are amongst the most outstanding examples of porcelain art from the 18th century. The ¿Monkey with Pear¿ figurine by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner is a case in point. Despite initially struggling to make the transition from working in stone to making artistic use of the more malleable porcelain, he eventually emulated Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706 - 1775) as a master of large-format animal statuary at Meissen. The two modellers found the source material for their sculptures in scientific prints, a natural history collection with stuffed animals and the local menageries and aviaries around the Moritzburg hunting lodge. Unlike Kaendler, Kirchner focused less on an animal¿s momentum and more on its characteristic expressions. His ffigure almost comes across as being human. It embodies a mixture of traditional and more contemporary approaches in keeping with the various currents of late-Baroque art.