Object Description
A Pair Of Louis XVI Gilt-Bronze Mounted Green Marble Vases
Each vase is of baluster form, the green Cipollino marble body encircled by laurel and vine leaf gilt-bronze mounts. The spirally fluted neck is flanked by loop handles and mask terminals. The fixed lids have a pomegranate finial. On stiff-leaf cast socle and square foot.
France, Circa 1870.
These neoclassical vases are designed in the ‘Goût Grec’ as popularised by the architect and designer Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-1791) in his design book Nouvelle Iconologie Historique, 1768. This interest in classical antiquity stemmed from excavations of ancient ruins. Delafosse tried to lineate his drawings according to region. He ascribes the design for these urns to ancient Naples as illustrated on plate 35 of Iconologie Historique.
They exemplify the neoclassical fashion of the Louis XVI period and were adopted by sculptors, marble workers and bronziers. The publication of his designs meant they remained a source of inspiration, referenced and adapted throughout the 19th century, especially during the Louis XVI style revival of the 1860-80s. The fine quality of the present vases is evident in the superbly sharp cutting of the marble, especially the fluting to the necks, and the fine chasing and gilding of the bronze mounts.
The choice of Cipollino marble compliments the ancient aspiration of the design. The patterned green silicate marble was first quarried by the Ancient Greeks on the Island of Euboea and exported to Rome from the 1st century BC onwards.