Lot n° 29
Estimation :
15000 - 30000
EUR
Résultats avec frais
Résultat
: 65 000EUR
René LALIQUE (1860–1945). - Lot 29
René LALIQUE (1860–1945).
"Palestre"
Molded, blown white satin-finish glass vase encircled by a frieze of young athletes.
Created on July 9, 1928.
Signed on the reverse “R. Lalique France”
H_41 cm
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Félix Marcilhac, “René Lalique, Catalogue Raisonné of Glass Works,” Les Éditions de l’Amateur, Paris, 2011; this model is listed and reproduced as no. 1012 on p. 441. Reproduced in gray on page 115 of the catalog.
Expert: Mr. Marc Lallement, Expert at the CNES.
Assisted by Ms. Élisabeth Bolland, Consultant.
In the Greek gymnasium, the “palestra” refers to the space dedicated to training men in wrestling. The subject of our vase evokes the ancient ideal of a well-rounded individual, equally skilled in the arts as in combat and action.
In Greek art, the figure of the athlete is not only the archetype of physical beauty, a “gift from the gods”; it also visibly embodies wisdom and virtue. Recognizable by his nudity, the athlete has adorned Euphronios’ vases since the 5th century B.C., thus affirming the ideal union of body and mind.
René Lalique, in turn, followed this long tradition. In his work, athletes appear in motion, captured in the throes of exertion, as on the doors of his studio on the Cours de la Reine in Paris in 1902. Struggling figures also adorned the front steps of Jacques Doucet’s home in 1912.
But in our piece, it is rest that exalts their virile beauty: a calm, controlled, self-assured strength. A beauty all the more moving in that it seems to reveal the beauty of the soul. The contours of the heroic figures are delicately highlighted by a sepia patina, which draws a subtle boundary with the opalescent void of their glass matrix.
By reinterpreting this theme—as ancient as Western art itself—René Lalique places himself squarely within classical culture, the very culture that has bequeathed to us a taste for beauty and a love of light, when it serves as a reflection of the spirit.
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