FRANCE, END OF XVIII - START OF XIX CENTURY, Pair of Medici vases

Gilded bronze and marble. 25,6 x 10 x 8 cm

A pair of Medici vases, made of mercury gilded bronze on plinth bases of precious marble. High-quality bronze and coating.
On the bases' front, two high-reliefs in gilded bronze depict a couple of cupids: one is preparing the bow, the other is shooting the arrow.
The upper part of the vases features high-reliefs with impressions of putti.

These decorative motifs, popular in the Neoclassical period, were inspired by the "Borghese" and the "Medici" vases and were replicated endlessly, albeit with some variances.
The great French bronze artist Pierre Philippe Thomire (Paris 1751 - 1843) was notorious for making a few of these that went on to inspire the vases present here.