قائمة أمنياتي
Attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire
A Pair of Large and Magnificent Empire Period Gilt-Bronze Vases on Plinths
POA
A Pair of Large and Magnificent Empire Period Gilt-Bronze Vases on Plinths. Attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire. Each vase of classical urn shape....
ابعاد
Height: 60 cm (24 in)Width: 30 cm (12 in)
Depth: 30 cm (12 in)
طبعوصف
A Pair of Large and Magnificent Empire Period Gilt-Bronze Vases on Plinths. Attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire.
Each vase of classical urn shape. The egg-and-dart rim above a tapering body applied with a frieze of berried and scrolled acanthus with swans. The bodies with relief cast figural groups of, to the front, Neptune and Amphitrite riding a chariot drawn by hippocampi and, to the back, with the birth of Venus. Between are winged mermaids holding garlands. The handles are modelled as dolphins adjoining stiff-leaf and anthemion cast bands to the lower body. Supported on socles and square bases above cube shaped plinths applied with relief cast medallions of a wreathed Apollo mask to front and back, and cupid riding a dolphin to the sides. The square foot with still-leaf tapering rim.
France, Circa 1810.
Thomire produced many variations of this type of neoclassical urn, however the present examples are unusually large and correspondingly rare. Coupled with the first-rate quality of the gilding, fine detail and chasing, these vases number among a handful of the most highly prized examples.
A pair of identical vases by Thomire in the second Antechamber of the Royal Palace of Naples.
There are a pair of identical vases by Thomire in the second Antechamber of the Royal Palace of Naples. Befitting of Naples, with its ancient maritime history, the distinctive figural design of these vases is a distinctive celebration of the sea. The marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite, the birth of Venus, the winged Nereides and the dolphin riding cupid, are all nautical allegories.
تاريخ
Circa 1810
أصل
فرنسا
متوسط
gilt-bronse
Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) was the son of the Parisian decorative sculptor Luc Philippe Thomire and a member of a family which produced many notable sculptors, carvers and bronze founders. Although trained as a sculptor, Pierre-Philippe Thomire decided to follow his father into the potentially more lucrative profession of a bronze caster.
He was the most prominent bronzier, or producer of ornamental patinated and gilt-bronze objects and furniture mounts of the First French Empire. His fashionable neoclassical and Empire style bronzes established the highest standard in refined finish in the craft that the French called that of the fondeur-ciseleur.
Thomire studied under Houdon and Paju at the Académie de St. Luc, and then went on to receive further training in the workshop of Pierre Gouthière, the outstanding Parisian ciseleur-doreur.
In 1776 he established his own business and he gradually assumed the leading position of his former master. In 1783–84 he received his first notable commission, casting and finishing the gilt-bronze handles modelled by Boizot for a pair of Sèvres porcelain vases, today divided between the Musée du Louvre and Palazzo Pitti. He also received a commission for the execution of the cradle for the King of Rome, which was designed by Pierre Paul Prud’hon and for which Thomire collaborated with the Imperial silversmith Odiot.
Thomire’s big break had come when he began assisting Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis, the artistic director of the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, in making mounts. When Duplessis died in 1783, Thomire took over his job, supplying all the gilt bronze mounts for the porcelain. One of his first important commissions was to sculpt the bronze decoration on the state coach of King Louis XVI (1775).
He exhibited at the 1806 Exposition Publique des Produits de l’Industrie in Paris, the first time a bronzier was permitted among the exhibiters, and was awarded a gold medal for his bronze and malachite sculptures.
In 1809 the Emperor Napoleon made him ciseleur de l’empereur (Engraver to the Emperor); because of the large number of pieces Thomire supplied to the palaces, his firm became fournisseur de leurs majestés (Furniture Suppliers to their Majesties) two years later.
He produced many bronzes in the heroic idiom during the Napoleonic era, remaining in favour after the restoration of the Bourbons to sculpt a magnificent surtout (table decoration) for Louis XVIII in 1823. Thomire relinquished control of his business that year to his sons-in-law and the firm continued to win numerous medals at various exhibitions, before it finally ceased to trade in 1852.
