Detail View: The AMICA Library: Figure of a Lion

AMICA ID: 
MMA_.1988.294.1
AMICA Library Year: 
2000
Object Type: 
Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects
Creator Name: 
Meissen Porcelain Manufactory
Creator Role: 
Factory
Creator Name-CRT: 
Manufacured by Meissen
Creator Name: 
Kirchner, Johann Gottlieb
Creator Role: 
After a model by
Creator Dates/Places: 
ca. 1706-1737; active at Meissen 1727-28 and 1731-33
Creator Name-CRT: 
After a model by Johann Gottlob Kirchner
Title: 
Figure of a Lion
Title Type: 
Object name
View: 
Detail
Creation Date: 
18th century (ca. 1732-35)
Creation Start Date: 
1732
Creation End Date: 
1735
Materials and Techniques: 
Hard-paste porcelain
Classification Term: 
Ceramics-Porcelain
Dimensions: 
H. 21 3/16 in. (53.8 cm), L. 32 7/8 in. (83.5 cm)
AMICA Contributor: 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: 
New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 
1988.294.1
Credit Line: 
Wrightsman Fund, 1988
Rights: 
Context: 

In 1727 the elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, began renovating a building in Dresden that came to be known as the Japanese Palace. It was to be filled with Augustus's growing collections of porcelain, lacquer, and soapstone, arranged by category, much as they would be in a modern museum. Among the planned displays were several hundred figures of birds and animals that were to be made at Meissen in a large size that had not yet been attempted, stretching the capabilities of porcelain to its limit. This calmly imposing lion was modeled by Kirchner as part of the series; the broad handling of the body and the deep undercutting of the mane display his training as a sculptor of stone.

The elector's plan was never realized; he died in 1733 and neither the installation of the Japanese Palace nor the series of birds and animals was completed.

Related Image Identifier Link: 
MMA_.es1988.294.1.AV1.tif