Giuseppe or Luigi Valadier.
Alabaster, marble and gilt bronze.
Rome. Late 18th century, around 1780.
H. 29,5 cm.
Masterpieces of art in Rome in the 1770s and 1780s, the Valadier desserts have not survived in their entirety to the ravages of time and successive sales. Those of Luigi Braschi Onesti, duke of Nemi, preserved in the Louvre Museum and of the Bailli de Breteuil, preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Madrid, are incomplete.
Nevertheless, some parallels can be made and help to identify their works. This alabaster vase has a gilt bronze mounting typical of the Valadier creations. The lion's heads are the same as those on one of the pieces of the Duc de Breteuil's main piece, kept in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. And the chimeras on the base of the vase are the same as those on the surtout kept in the Royal Palace in Madrid.
