The Chinese Emperor ca. 1766 Höchst Manufactory This remarkable sculpture was almost certainly produced as the centerpiece for a grouping of figures made to decorate a dining table. In both scale and complexity, it is one of the most ambitious figure groups produced at Höchst, and it is further distinguished by its enamel decoration, which is more detailed and finer than that found on the four other known examples of this model.[1] The group depicts the Chinese emperor holding a scepter and seated beneath a baldachin on a stepped platform. The figure standing closest to the Chinese emperor pre
The Chinese Emperor ca. 1766 Höchst Manufactory This remarkable sculpture was almost certainly produced as the centerpiece for a grouping of figures made to decorate a dining table. In both scale and complexity, it is one of the most ambitious figure groups produced at Höchst, and it is further distinguished by its enamel decoration, which is more detailed and finer than that found on the four other known examples of this model.[1] The group depicts the Chinese emperor holding a scepter and seated beneath a baldachin on a stepped platform. The figure standing closest to the Chinese emperor presents the other two figures, both representing the Arts and, by extension, the enlightened patronage of the emperor. The other standing figure, who wears a laurel crown, holds a book under his arm and points to emblems of the arts, including a painter’s palette and the sculpted head of a putto, placed on the lower step of the platform. The kneeling and bowing figure holds an unfurled scroll with fanciful writing. The complexity of the figural composition is both enhanced and framed by the prominent architectural feature of the baldachin with an openwork roof, cascading drapery, and supports in the form of large, asymmetrical authorship of this highly sophisticated composition has been debated,[2] but the group is commonly attributed to Johann Peter Melchior (German, 1742/47–1825), who began working at Höchst in 1765, the year before this model was created.[3] Melchior was to become one of the most accomplished and prolific modelers in all of Europe, and The Chinese Emperor is his earliest known work. Because of the artistic and technical skill that the group represents, Horst Reber suggests that Melchior may have been aided by the modeler Laurentius Russinger (German, 1739–1810), who had served as head modeler at Höchst for six years at the time Melchior joined the factory.[4] Melchior must have been inspired by another Höchst figure group, The Sultan o
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