Pair of vases; Napoleon III period, last third of the 19th century.

Pair of vases; Napoleon III period, last third of the 19th century. Gilt bronze and onyx d'Algérie. Measuremets: 66 x 28 x 28 cm. Pair of urns that presents an ovoid recipient made of white onyx, which has some brownish streaks that give a totally expressive character to the piece. The rest of the ornamental elements that make up both vessels 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 bronze base with decorative vegetal elements, worked in the synthetic and refined style typical of the period. The bronze ornamentation is particularly notable for the quality of the chiselling, which reproduces the aesthetics of filigree work with great expressiveness. The ovoid shape of the body is surmounted by a long neck that forms the junction with the vessel, which is ovoid in the orientalist style. The side knockers next to the mouth are also noteworthy, as they take the anthropomorphic form of a dragon's head. Orientalism was born in the 19th century as a consequence of the romantic spirit of flight in time and space. The first Orientalists sought to reflect the lost, the unattainable, in a dramatic journey destined from the outset to fail, and for this reason they adopted aesthetic forms based on an idealised vision of Orientalist culture.