Vase; France, Napoleon III, third quarter of the nineteenth century.

Vase; France, Napoleon III, third quarter of the nineteenth century.
Gilded bronze.
Measurements: 38 x 31.5 x 17 cm.
From the stylistic point of view, the vase is part of the neo-baroque and neo-renaissance tradition, currents widely cultivated in imperial France. The general form is enriched by a profuse ornamentation in relief: mythological figures, winged lovebirds and vegetal scrolls, executed with a remarkable mastery of sculptural modeling. These elements, inspired by the Greco-Roman repertoire, are harmoniously integrated into the surface of the object, blurring the boundary between sculpture and decorative arts.
This piece is linked to the context of an industrial and prosperous France, in which the development of new casting and gilding techniques allowed the production of high quality objects for the bourgeoisie and the new urban spaces, palaces and official salons. The Napoleon III style is clearly evident in this vase, both in its formal conception and in its decorative language. Above all, it is manifested in the historicist eclecticism that defines the Second Empire: the work does not reproduce a specific antique model, but freely reworks classical, Greco-Roman and Renaissance references, combining them with a fully nineteenth-century sensibility.