Footnotes

Provenance:
The Twinight Collection

Literature:
K. Hantschmann, Nymphenburger Porzellan des Klassizismus 1797-1847 (1996), p. 314;
S. Wittwer, Raffinesse & Eleganz Königliche Porzellane des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts aus der Twinight Collection New York (2007), p. 77, ill. 88

This plate was part of a commission of a dessert service for King Max I of Bavaria, which may have been inspired by the similarly-decorated Sèvres Service 'à marli d'or' for the Emperor Napoleon. The subjects on the Nymphenburg service are mostly after old master paintings and reflected the Bavarian king's preferences; like the Sèvres service, the gilt borders had various patterns. Twenty-seven plates were delivered to the court and were kept in the Silberkammer (now displayed in various museums).

Eight plates recorded as having been painted by Fouquet for the service (including the present lot) were either not purchased by the court or have not survived. The explanation may lie in an ongoing dispute over payments between Fouquet, who trained at Sèvres and may have been engaged specifically for this service (possibly at the instigation of the king), and the chief painter, Anton Auer. The latter, who was responsible for evaluating the painters' work, felt that the quality of Fouquet's painting did not justify the price he asked, while Fouquet in turn blamed any deficiencies in his work on the poor quality of the colours supplied by Auer. As a consequence of this dispute Fouquet left the manufactory, and it is possible that the plates painted for him for the dessert service but not acquired by the court were subsequently sold. Others are in the Bäuml Collection (A, Ziffer, Nymphenburger Porzellan Sammlung Bäuml (1997), no. 1333; and in the Württembergisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. 11.255.

After a painting depicting an allegory of vanity by Titian of around 1515 - previously attributed to Giorgione - that is now in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek Munich, inv. no. 483.