Medallion in chased and gilded bronze with the effigy of King Louis XV

Rare medallion in chased and gilded bronze on a grey-blue marble background, with the egie of king Louis XVI, XVIIIth century.

Former collection Madame Camoin.

The interior painters of the late eighteenth century provide us with many examples of the role played by the medallion that brings a personal note to the framework of intimate life.
Thus, Hubers Robers depicted Mme Geoffrin at her desk, surrounded by her familiar objects, among which is a collection of medallions.
The medallion with the royal egie recalls the heroic theme of the profiles of emperors struck on medals of the ancient period. Another filiation, that of the cameos, whose kinship is clear here if we consider the treatment of the gilded and chiseled bronze profile that stands out in relief from the grey-blue mabre counter-socle.
This contrast is also reminiscent of the Wedgwood porcelain works. Reflecting the revival of classicism in England at the end of the eighteenth century, which was also widely successful in France.
This medallion represents King Louis XVI in left profile, at the age of maturity as evidenced by a slight corpulence and a nascent heaviness of features. His ceremonial robe, girded with the ribbon and the order of the Holy Spirit, describes a tangle of lines and folds that corresponds, with the suppleness of the curls of the wig, to a search for a certain naturalness.
The very elaborate frame includes, between a row of beads and a plate, a frieze of interlacing punctuated with fleur-de-lis and stylized flowers. A large bow surmounts the frame in the ornamental richness softens the not very austere character of this portrait.