Cleveland Museum of Art

Vase

Date

c. 1800

Medium

bronze, partially gilt, marble base

Culture

France, late 18th-early 19th Century

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

In 1798, a large quantity of French furnishings was acquired for the Michael Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Some of these pieces survive in museums like the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. This institution recently staged an exhibition of such French pieces by and attributed to Thomire. Among the objects shown was a bronze vase virtually identical in design to this piece. The body of this vase is decorated with two small reliefs showing male and female centaurs with putti riding on their backs. These reliefs also occur on silver wine coolers produced by the Odiot firm, a major Parisian silversmith under Napoleon's empire. The Odiot firm still owns models of these reliefs that, according to tradition, had been given to Jean-Baptiste Claude Odiot by Thomire.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.