145 - Pair of Louis XVI style goblets; France, 19th century.

Pair of Louis XVI style goblets; France, 19th century. Marble and bronze. One of them has faults in the base. Measurements: 62 x 37 x 25 cm (x2). Pair of ornamental goblets in classicist style, whose forms are inspired by the Louis XVI style. They consist of an ovoid vessel in green marble, with expressive light veining, and the rest of the pieces are made of gilded bronze, cast in relief and with cold chiselled details. They consist of a typically Empire base, prismatic, sharp-edged and smooth, on which the foot is placed directly, consisting of a tight laurel wreath, worked in the synthetic and refined style typical of the period around 1800. The bronze ornamentation is particularly notable for the quality of the chiselling, which reproduces the texture of the leaves with great expressiveness. The ovoid shape of the body is surmounted by an intermediate neck that forms the junction with the vessel, which is ovoid in shape following Classicist models. The side handles, which are arranged in the anthropomorphic form of a bearded satyr crowned with large horns, are also noteworthy. The combination of these apparently disparate elements is nevertheless effective at the expressive level, and manages to maintain classical rigour while leaving room for the ornamental fantasy so much to the taste of the bourgeois clientele of the second half of the 19th century.