Jest of a jester - Meissen porcelain bust of Baron Schmiedel by Johann Joachim Kändler, 1739

 

(This first image is of a very slightly different version from those following; the lowermost mouse has moved to the other side of the baron's chest.)

This life-size porcelain bust of Baron Schmiedel wearing his postmaster's uniform was created by Johann Joachim Kändler in 1739. It was commissioned by the Saxon Elector Friedrich August II and is considered one of Kändler's most important works. He captured the essence of the court jester, whose stock in trade stoic and melancholy demeaner appears to have been a sort of precursor to later comic actors, such as Buster Keaton; even with four mice scampering over him - one actually dangling from his mouth - he refuses to express any sort of surprise or distress.

Johann Gottfried Schmiedel (né Gottfried Junge? circa 1700, probably Silesia - before 14 July 1756, Dresden), court jester and conjurer, alongside Joseph Fröhlich, at the Saxon-Polish court in Dresden. Born illegitimate, he was provided an education by a baron - whose name and title he apparently later "borrowed" - and later moved to Dresden where he worked, among other things, as a servant in noble houses. He was working in a restaurant when he was noticed by a member of the Saxon nobility who then hired him and introduced him at the Electoral Saxon court. From 1727 he was teamed with Fröhlich and the pair became widely known, working together until at least twenty years later. He held several positions during and after this period - bed master, castle inspector, chamber courier, hunting inspector, postmaster - and seems to have amassed some wealth; in the year of his death he established a foundation to provide educational grants to young people.

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Johann Joachim Kändler (15 June 1706, Fischbach - 18 May 1775, Meissen), German sculptor, remembered as the most important modeler of the Meissen porcelain factory, and arguably of all European porcelain of the period. Born the son of a pastor, he received a classical education and developed an excellent knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology. He began his professional life as an apprentice under the important Dresden court sculptor and altar carver Johann Benjamin Thomae. His great talent was soon noticed and at the age of only twenty-five he was appointed court sculptor to Augustus II and installed as a modeler at the Meissen porcelain manufactory; just two years later he succeeded to the position of "modelmaster." He continued to rise to more important positions within the factory, and the enduring fame of Meissen porcelain is based on the work completed by and under Kändler's direction. With his position he accumulated wealth, property, and status but at his death, after forty years with Meissen, he left behind extensive debts.