CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, BLACK INVENTORY NUMBER 8154

This figure is from the series of table decorations commissioned from the Meissen factory by Johann Adolph II, duke of Sachen-Weissenfels (1685-1746). The duke of Weissenfels was first cousin of Augustus the Strong, and the series is traditionally thought to have been ordered to commemorate his wedding to Frederike von Sachsen-Gotha in 1743. The table sculptures, depicting Commedia dell'Arte characters, were among the most popular and influential made at Meissen. The series appears to consist of 18 figures modelled by Peter Reinicke, with some supervisory corrections by Johann Joachim Kändler. Ten of the figures were directly, and two (the Dottore and Pantalone), were indirectly inspired by the engravings of François Joullain, some of which are after Watteau, Bérain, Gillot, Callot and Coypel, in Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du théâtre italien, published in Paris in 1728.

The figure of Beltrame is among those directly inspired by one of François Joullain's engravings, Habit de Beltrame de Milan, in Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du théâtre Italien, Paris, 1728. In his Work Report for 1744 Reinicke mentions fourteen of the figures from the series, including Beltrame (model no. 1355), which he created in August 1744: '1 Figur, Beltrama di Milan, 71⁄2 Zoll hoch, in Thon boshirt' (1 figure, Beltrama di Milan, 71⁄2 Zoll high, modelled in clay). For a full discussion of this series see the essay by Meredith Chilton, ‘The Duke of Weissenfels Series’, in Reinhard Jansen (Ed.), Commedia dell'Arte: Carnival of Comedy Players, Stuttgart, 2001, pp. 16-20. See also Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, London, 2001, pp. 308-9 & p. 311 and also cat. no. 111 for an illustration of the Beltrame figure. For the engraved sources, see H. E. Backer, 'Komödienfiguren in der Sammlung Dr. Ernst Schneider, Düsseldorf', Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, 1960, No. 50, p. 59-62.