Elephant
Imperial Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (1744–1864)
c. 1750
this site may contain automatically translated textAnatomical details suggest that the modeller of the elephant only knew the wondrous beast from engravings. Similarities can be seen in the ‘Olyfant’ by Jan Wandelaar (1727), an elephant fighting by Antonio Tempesta (1610) and the “elephant hunt” by Jan van der Straet (1578). Such graphic sources made for a somewhat one-sided image of the sensitive colossus, as can be seen from the enraged expression of the porcelain elephant once in the Heinrich Rothberger Collection.
- Material/technique
- hard-paste porcelain
- Measurements
- 23.0 × 49.5 cm
- Acquisition
- acquired in 2020 by Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein
- Currently exhibited
- Hercules of the Arts. Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein and Vienna around 1700, Vienna, Liechtenstein Garden Palace
- Artists/makers/authors
- Imperial Vienna Porcelain Manufactory
- Inventory number
- PO 2787
- Provenance
- 1902, Heinrich Rothberger Collection, Vienna; 1939, Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum, Vienna; Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna; restituted to Heinrich Rothberger's niece, Bertha Gutmann, in 2003, then in the family by inheritance; acquired in 1902 by Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein at Bonhams, London, auction "Fine European Ceramics Including the Heinrich Rothberger Collection", lot 7 || a known person || on 3 December 2020.
- Place of origin
- Vienna
- Iconography
- Animals
Ausst.-Kat. Wiener Porzellan 1718–1864, Wilhelm Mrazek, Waltraud Neuwirth (Hg.), erschienen Wien 1971, S. 124, Kat.-Nr. 333
Christina Gschiel, Ulrike Nimeth, Leonhard Weidinger (Hg.), Schneidern und sammeln. Die Wiener Familie Rothberger (Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung, 2), Wien–Köln–Weimar 2010, Abb. Titelblatt, S. 108–112
Auktions-Kat. Fine European Ceramics. Including the Heinrich Rothberger Collection, Bonhams, London 3.12.2020, S. 30–31, Lot 7
Christina Gschiel, Ulrike Nimeth, Leonhard Weidinger (Hg.), Schneidern und sammeln. Die Wiener Familie Rothberger (Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung, 2), Wien–Köln–Weimar 2010, Abb. Titelblatt, S. 108–112
Auktions-Kat. Fine European Ceramics. Including the Heinrich Rothberger Collection, Bonhams, London 3.12.2020, S. 30–31, Lot 7
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