Modernist centrepiece, circa 1900.

Modernist centrepiece, circa 1900.
Carved glass and metal.
Measurements: 4 x 52 x 32 cm (tray); 14 x 42 x 20 cm (centre).
Modernist centrepiece with matching tray, a piece framed within organic modernism, both for the vegetal inspiration and the naturalism of its ornamental motifs and, above all, for the sinuosity of its lines, dynamic and anticlassical, which evoke undulating stems or whips and which constitute one of the main signs of identity of organic modernism. The tray has a profile based on mitered curves that comes from rococo models, a language that shows important parallels with modernism: both are anti-classical languages, where decoration takes precedence over the structure and comes to determine it, they value asymmetry, naturalism and sinuosity, and both have their origins in central Europe. Here, however, the profile of mottled curves is determined by gentle undulations that are now completely modernist, extending like stems or ripples of water extending through the piece, flowing through it and, in fact, giving it shape. Also important in this tray is the play of volumes, with concave areas, reliefs, fretwork and protrusions that give the piece an organic, lively air, with a vegetal appearance although abstract at heart, something that also occurred in rococo.
The centrepiece has an inner tank of colourless glass, also with a profile of mitred curves, highlighted by a carved bevelled line that follows its contour. The metal structure is fretworked on the long sides, which allows for a play of colours, textures and contrasts, once the centrepiece houses flowers, food or other objects. Above this openwork, two nymph's heads stand out, worked in relief, of great delicacy and naturalism, which emerge from a composition again halfway between the vegetal and the aquatic, which branches out towards the sides to finally form the handles, of enormous beauty, made up of branches that seem to grow together.