EUR

FR   EN   中文

CONNECTION
Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780
Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780 - Decorative Objects Style Louis XVI Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780 - Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780 - Louis XVI
Ref : 91060
29 000 €
Period :
18th century
Provenance :
Italy
Medium :
Egyptian Porphyry
Dimensions :
l. 7.09 inch X H. 29.53 inch X P. 7.09 inch
Decorative Objects  - Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780 18th century - Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780
Antiques Prové

Period furniture and works of art from ancient times to the 19th century .


+32 495207546
Egyptian Porhyry Obelisk circa 1780

A fine and tall obelisk in Egyptian Porphyry . Base in Vert de Mer and Rosso Antico . No other stone in Western Civilization has attained the same prestigious status as that of porphyry. A stone which embodied the power of Emperors and rulers since Antiquity, and from the end of the Roman Empire represented a means to legitimise and underline the power of any pretender to the throne. Of a deep purple color with flecks of white, the bullet hard volcanic stone was, according to Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, discovered by legionary Caius Cominius in the year 18 AD at a location now called Mons Porphyrites (Porphyry Mountain), in the eastern desert of Egypt. Romans gave the stone a name: “porphyry”, deriving from the Latin word for purple, the color of nobility. With exceptional strength and durability, its intrinsic qualities were perfectly suited to the message of power and authority but also made it extremely hard to work and carve, making objects in this hardstone both political and artistic statements. After the 5thcentury, the quarries ceased to be mined and Mons Porphyrites was lost to oblivion. Thereafter, the sole source for porphyry of this type used in Western Europe were ruins from Ancient Rome, imbuing the new works created with a deep spiritual connection to Antiquity.

Delevery information :

Transport can be arranged . .

Antiques Prové

19th century
Celestial Sphere India

7 500 €

18th century
Bronze Medici Venus

3 500 €

19th century
Collection of Figures from Poona

5 000 €

CATALOGUE

Decorative Objects