Listening to BBC iPlayer this week, Neil MacGregor from the British Museum reminded me of a vulture!
I should quickly clarify that this is not some museum-rivalry based insult, but rather that I was enjoying listening to him in an episode from the series Germany: Memories of a Nation.
In the episode Porcelain: The White Gold of Saxony MacGregor looks at how 18th-century German chemists discovered the secrets of Chinese porcelain, known then as ‘white gold’ and considers the ‘porcelain malady’ of the ambitious Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony.
This extraordinary sculpture of a King Vulture is from a large group of animals and birds the Augustus the Strong commissioned from the Meissen factory for the upper floor of the Japanese Palace at Dresden. In 2015 it will be taking up a perch in the Europe Galleries display on City Workshops!
Augustus was one of the wealthiest monarchs and most important patrons of the arts of his age and his commission for a porcelain menagerie is one of the great landmarks in ceramic history.
Work began in 1730, only 20 years after Meissen had become the first European factory to make porcelain in the Chinese manner. Nearly 600 life-size animals were planned, and at least 458 were made.
You can read more about our King Vulture in this article on the V&A website, King Vulture by Meissen, about 1731.
