This fantastic and specific Napoleon III-period fireplace gives me the opportunity to counter the statement of my History of Art Professor when she apostrophized me like this, “You, my dear Dal Pezzo, tread on your intelligence, ” which happened whenever I considered a work we were studying/examining as belonging to a specific style, albeit WITHOUT there being a perfect adherence to the rules of that style. I would reply to her. “This is, for me, his stylistic family. That then a particular one of his deviates from the straight and narrow, well, that's as it should be, Art moves, always and in any case, the important thing is that It retains the power to WOW us.”
Now, dear my "German" professor, I solemnly and publicly affirm that this fascinating sculpture is certainly in the Louis XVI style, a style normally devoid of curvilinear forms. And I affirm this in spite of the fact that in our fireplace, the most important sculptural part, the front, is completely rounded. Its very nickname “ARRONDI,” means “ARCUED,” and we keep well in mind that this nickname was given to it by the people themselves and not by the “profs” of Art History.
In truth, this VARIATION ON THE STYLISTIC THEME was born in the Parisian Ateliers des Arts, sprung from the pen of an architect who had a very specific task, that of referring, yes, to the Louis XVI style, an elegant and “masculine” style, liked (and probably imposed) by Napoleon III but with some variation that, in some way, could be traced back to a new era.
IN SHORT, SEEK INSPIRATION IN THE LOUIS XVI STYLE YES, BUT SLAVISHLY COPY IT NO.
I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THAT THIS “ROUNDING” ADDS GRACE AND ELEGANCE TO THIS IMPORTANT WORK.
His sculpture, as is ALWAYS the case when works are of this level, is very Italian and, without a shadow of a doubt, occurred in Lunigiana (Italy), a land on the slopes of the Apuan Alps, a land in which, as far back as 400 B.C., the finest sculptors on the globe worked.
ALSO IMPORTANT IN MY OPINION ARE THESE SMALL DETAILS OF HIS:
(A) THE POSITION OF ITS LEGS, FACING 30° TOWARD THE SIDES, SO THAT THE SCULPTURES ON THE LEGS COULD ALSO BE ENJOYED BY REACHING, PRECISELY, FROM THE SIDES AND NOT ONLY FROM THE FRONT;
B) THE “BEADED” DECORATION THAT YOU CAN ADMIRE ON THE LEGS OF THE FIREPLACE IS ECHOED BOTH IN THE COUNTERSCULPTURE (PARTICULARLY IN THE PLINTHS) AND IN THE CAST BRONZE MOUTHS AFFIXED TO THE SIDES (IN ITALIAN, THIS BEADED DECORATION WAS CALLED “CORAL WORKMANSHIP,” FROM THE ROW OF BUBBLES THAT THE CORAL EMITTED AS IT GREW).
