Minneapolis Institute of Art

Chevaux Marin (seahorse) chenet, one of a pair

France

Date

c. 1745–50

Medium

Gilt bronze, iron

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

These andirons (firedogs) are decorated with sea-horses, which were sculpted as thoroughbred steeds, their hooves replaced with fins. The fact that sea-horses, which live in the water, are shown on fireplace equipment, refers to the ancient Greek theory that the cosmos is comprised of four, antithetical elements: fire, water, earth and air. Decorating a fireplace with sea-horses, symbols of water, would have been considered a clever juxtaposition. The concept of the four elements continued to be very much en vogue in France in the 18th century – at the same time, when science abandoned the concept, and the great chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) paved the way for the modern periodic table of elements in his Méthode de nomenclature chimique (1787). Europe

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