A Pair of Large Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Rouge Griotte Vases and Covers

Descripción

A Pair of Large Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Rouge Griotte Vases and Covers.

Designed in the Neoclassical Style with intwined serpent handles above ram’s masks joined by acanthus swags. These palatial vases are amongst the finest examples of their period. Their grand scale, finely carved rouge griotte marble and exquisitely wrought gilt-bronze mounts are emblematic of the extravagant and opulent tastes of the fin de siècle, when bronziers spared no expense to create ever more lavish objects and works of art. Towards the end of the 19th century, the market for such magnificent works of art was increasingly international, and vases of such palatial scale would have been much sought after by Gilded Age collectors.

Undoubtedly nineteenth century in their scale and opulence, the design for these vases comes from classical prototypes an the intertwined serpent handles reference antiquity,when the Greeks and Romans believed snakes acted as guardians of sacred places, houses, and tombs. Accordingly, the inspiration for the present vases comes from 18th century France, when makers such as Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813), bronze chaser and gilder to Louis XV and Louis XVI, created à la Grecque vases ornamented with masks, serpents and such neoclassical ornament.

France, Circa 1870-90.