This small cup made of Meissen porcelain features a decor inspired by ancient wall paintings, so-called grotesques. These include the vine ornaments, garlands and mask-like decorations that are repeated at regular intervals and enclose quadrangular images inspired by ancient cameos. In a possible allusion to the use of the cup, there is, for example, a scene of a libation on its front, with a naked youth pouring a liquid onto a consecrated altar. The popularity of this style is inextricably linked to the rediscovery of the Domus aurea, the great palace of the Roman Emperor Nero, in the late fifteenth century. Along with the return to classical design principles in the second half of the eighteenth century, grotesque painting also regained importance.
This period not only saw the decoration of the imperial rooms, but also the flourishing of the Meissen porcelain manufactory under Camillo Marcolini, to whom Elector Frederick Augustus III had entrusted the directorship on 20 August 1774. It was Marcolini who had the star added to the famous sword mark, which can be found on the underside of the cup. The cup thus illustrates the entry of Classicism into the manufactory’s product range, albeit as an extremely rare example of grotesque decoration; a matching saucer has not survived. The biscuit figures created by Johann Carl Schönheit and Christian Gottfried Jüchtzer in the style of antique sculptures from the Dresden collection were much more common.
Text: Alexander Röstel