I MUST MAKE AN IMPORTANT INTRODUCTION, AN INTRODUCTION THAT YOU WILL HAPPEN TO READ OTHER TIMES IN THE LUIGI XVI AND EMPIRE SECTIONS, AN INTRODUCTION THAT, HOWEVER, IS NECESSARY TO A BETTER POSSIBLE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FIREPLACE PRESENTED:
THIS FIREPLACE IS PUBLISHED BOTH IN THE LOUIS XVI SECTION AND IN THE EMPIRE SECTION, THIS IS BECAUSE WHILE IT IS TRUE THAT THE EMPIRE STYLISM (HERE I AM REFERRING TO THE "FIRST EMPIRE," THAT OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE) STEMS FROM THE NEOCLASSICAL STYLISTIC MATRIX AND MORE PRECISELY LOUIS XVI, IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT IN THE NAPOLEON III PERIOD (WHO WAS EMPEROR FROM 1852-1870) THE BASIC STYLISM OF THE FIRST EMPIRE WILL LOSE CERTAIN TOO AUSTERE AND/OR SPARTAN ASPECTS AND WILL BE DECISIVELY "REFINED."
AND ALSO, EXCUSE ME, I WOULD NOT MAKE TOO MUCH DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AND NAPOLEON III, THE LATTER IN FACT A) WAS DESCENDED FROM THE FORMER (HE WAS HIS NEPHEW AS HIS BROTHER'S SON), B) HAD HIS OWN DEFECT OF WANTING TO BE EMPEROR AT ALL COSTS, C) WAS A PROPONENT OF FRENCH GRANDEUR (IT WAS HE WHO BUILT, AT THE COST OF DEMOLISHING THE CENTER OF PARIS, THE CHAMPS ELYSEES) AND HE TOO, D) AFTER A MILITARY DEFEAT ENDED UP IN EXILE.
TALIS ZIUS TALIS NEPOTEM!!! (MACHERONIC LATIN BUT VERY UNDERSTANDABLE).
ALL THIS PARROT TO BE ABLE TO SAY THAT, AFTER ALL, EVEN THE SO-CALLED “SECOND EMPIRE” IS NOT AT ALL SECOND TO THE “FIRST EMPIRE.”
AND IN ANY CASE, BOTH CAN BEAR THE TITLE OF “EMPIRE.”
NOW LET'S GET TO THE ACTUAL COMMENTARY ON THE SPECIMEN IN THIS CARD:
VERY FINE FIREPLACE STYLISTICALLY BETWEEN THE LOUIS XVI AND THE EMPIRE (BUT, MIND YOU,ITS BIRTH IS IN THE NAPOLEON III PERIOD) IN CARRARA STATUARY, PROVENANCE PARIS, EXCELLENT CONSERVATION, “HUMAN” MEASUREMENTS…
Its riches are so many that, in preparing to list them, they all overlap in my mind and each would like to be considered the most important, each fearing to be debased or even forgotten..
But it is not so, you and I who are reading me know that the Harmony of an Art object (whatever it is) NEVER depends on a single factor, but on a happy conjunction of many elements...
Let us look at them together, if you like:
ITS MARBLE is a veined Statuary of great finesse, to date also already well “matured” and thus enriched with a patina that only time and the quality of the marble itself combined can give us
ITS DESIGN, coming out of the pencil of an architect of those who chewed well the History of Art
THE “CORAL WORKMANSHIP” (OR “PERLAGE” WHATEVER YOU WANT) on the front of this fireplace is not the same as perhaps many other times you may have seen, this specific workmanship sees the “pearls” detached from one another, but joined by a ....... THREAD !!!!!!!! Marble thread. In only one place in the world could such craftsmanship be accomplished, and that place was and is called Pietrasanta. It could have taken several weeks to complete such a work. THINGS OF YESTERYEAR
THE COVERING OF HIS CAPS, made of acanthus leaves turned upside down, as well as finely carved.
THE COUPLE OF LUNCES ON THE FLOOR or THE STUNNED FINISHING OF THE SOCKETS, these details, too, contribute to making this fireplace A HARMONIOUS WORK such as very few people get to admire, especially in architectural installations with a scent of Empire.
ITS SIZE, REFERRED TO ABOVE BY ME AS “HUMAN”. Some of you will object that measure mica can be considered a quality.... To this someone I reply that, with the same design and load of ornamentation, between two fireplaces of different sizes, the smaller one appears, ALWAYS, prettier, more slender, in a word, more elegant. That is why I believe that this element, too, must be cumulated with the others written above so that, all together, they contribute to the coveted HARMONY with which this commentary is imbued.
CAN YOU SEE THAT I AM CAUGHT IN LOVE REGARDING THIS FIREPLACE MANTEL!
