Ballerina or maenad. Art Deco, ca.1930.

Ballerina or maenad. Art Deco, ca.1930.
In silver plated bronze, enameled details.
Marble pedestal.
Measurements: 29 cm (height); 37 cm (total height).

This silver plated bronze sculpture, made around 1930, embodies the spirit of Art Deco, a movement that celebrated the elegance of the female body, stylized sensuality and the synthesis between art, luxury and modernity.

Classically inspired, it probably represents a dancing maenad, with a raised foot and raised arms. Her slender and supple anatomy is modeled with precision and fluidity, revealing a profound understanding of the human form idealized according to the canons of the decade.

The silvery surface of the bronze gives the piece a refined luminosity, accentuated by subtle enameled details that enrich the contrasting textures. Her nudity is veiled by a vine branch that ascends from her pubis to her back, a naturalistic element that adds a touch of symbolic modesty and visual continuity to the composition.

In one of her hands she holds a thyrsus (of which only the rod remains), an attribute associated with the maenads and the Dionysian cult, which reinforces the mythological reading of the work: a celebration of movement, dance and the exaltation of life.