Patinated Bronze Centerpieces with Red Griotte de Campan Marble Bases, 19th Century, Set of 2

Magnificent pair of centerpieces or pockets in patinated bronze on a base in red marble griotte de Campan. 
Notched glass cups carved thistle motif.
Symbolic representation of the nude, drunkenness and dance in the French art of the 19th century.

Period : XIXth century
Dimensions : Height : 47,2cm 
Dimensions of the base : Height : 5,5cm - Diameter : 12cm
Diameter of the cup : 32,5cm

The base is decorated with Greek mythological characters, representing respectively a satyr playing the flute, an original work of Hugues Taraval (1729-1785) on the one hand and a baccante supporting an amphora on the other.
Both carrying binnacles.

The satyr is an exuberant country creature who belongs to the thiase, procession of Dionysus. It is a being often drunk, more particularly due to the wine, which represents sexuality, the festival and the procession.

The bacchante is originally one of the nurses of Dionysus. According to the versions of the myth, she is either a nymph or a human woman devoted to her god. 
In the procession of Dionysus, she also refers to the party and the sexuality assumed. 
The satyrs are known to charm the women and more precisely the bacchantes, the two beings always participating in the Dionysian orgies.

Alternately ancient dancer, arch nymph or fatal maenad, the bacchante does not cease to appear in the creations of artists of the nineteenth century. 

Fascinating and polymorphic figure of the bacchante does it not represent the woman in the arts of the nineteenth century?

from Pradier to Rodin, from Berlioz to the Ballets Russes, the most diverse artists exploit this motif which makes of drunkenness the companion of Eros and Thanatos. 

The mythical priestess of the procession of Bacchus is regularly revisited until she is transformed into a sensual muse of modern times.