CIRCA 1820-30

Originating in ancient Greco-Roman artistic traditions, ram’s masks were prevalent design motifs of the Louis XVI period, when the interest in the Antique greatly influenced artists and craftsmen. First making their debut during the goût grec phase of Neoclassicism, the design of the ram’s masks became more fantastical with exaggerated features with the new taste for goût étrusque in the 1780s. Alongside the French fashion for the ‘Greek taste’ developed a fascination of hardstones and in particular porphyry. The innovative marchand-merciers, the taste-makers of Paris, daringly combined novel and luxurious materials such as porcelain, lacquer and hardstones with specially commissioned gilt-bronzes. With their grand scale and fine decoration, these impressive urns of neo-classical form manifest the continued interest in the 19th century in gilt-bronze-mounted porphyry objects. For a porphyry vase mounted with ormolu rams’ masks in the goût grec taste in the Wallace Collection, see P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, vol. III, London, 1996, p. 1981.