A Meissen Böttger stoneware bust of Emperor Aulus Vitellius

A Meissen Böttger stoneware bust of Emperor Aulus Vitellius

Hollow bust of the Emperor facing right. Unmarked. An open firing crack on the right and one shorter one on the reverse, the left shoulder reattached, the edges chipped. H 10.5 cm.
1710 - 11, model by Paul Heermann.

Paul Heermann (1673 - 1732) worked as a court sculptor and antique restorer for the Saxon king from 1705. Several bust-models for the moulding in red Böttger stoneware are attributed to him. Ingelore Menzhausen mentions the portrait bust of an unknown person from the Museo Archeologico in Venice as the model for the head called Emperor Vitellius. Heermann probably intended "following a princely custom of the Renaissance, originally to design the series of the twelve first Roman emperors in Böttger stoneware", which Menzhausen found confirmed in the inventory of 1711. There, under no. 43, it says "Ein Kayser Kopff" and others under nos. 71 to 81 (cat. Meissen Frühzeit und Gegenwart. In honour of Johann Friedrich Böttger, Dresden 1982, p. 95).

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Provenance

Formerly the Korthaus collection, Frankfurt.
Christie´s London auctioned on 18th September 1999, lot 218.

Literature

Illus. in cat.: Blütenlese. Meißener Porzellan aus der Sammlung Tono Dreßen, Munich 2018, p. 212.
This example in the porcelain collection in Dresden under inv. no. P.E.2381 (cat. Meißen Frühzeit und Gegenwart. Johann Friedrich Böttger zu Ehren, Dresden 1982, illus. I/50).
Two further examples in: Eberle, Das rote Gold. Die Sammlung Böttgersteinzeug auf Schloss Friedenstein Gotha, Gotha 2011, no. 9 f. This example with inv. no. St 2 b also with a firing crack.
Cf. Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich 1966, no. 824.