Figural Group: Musicians
manufacturer Meissen Porcelain Factory (German, est. c. 1710)
modeled by Johann Joachim Kändler (German, 1706–1768)
c. 1737
- Medium
- porcelain
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- Overall: 20 x 29.2 x 16.7 cm (7 7/8 x 11 1/2 x 6 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Germany, 18th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Decorative Art and Design
- Credit line
- Gift of Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc.
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
An elegantly dressed couple accompany one another in a duet while seated on a tall-backed settee in this German porcelain figurine. The woman is likely playing a lute, an early form of the guitar, while the gentleman joins in with a wooden flute. Their music-making reflects their courtship and intimacy—a typical symbolic gesture rendered in such figural ceramic sculptures.
