Vase decorated with two women – Avisseau, circa 1850 

This women’s vase signed “Avisseau à Tours” is a beautiful and original testimony to the work of the artist, one of Bernard Palissy’s main followers in Touraine. Indeed, pieces of this type of shape are very rare in the artist’s work. Here we feel perfectly the different inspirations that guided Avisseau’s work, with the Renaissance in mind. Both in its shape and in its decoration, this vase fully evokes the taste of the Renaissance: the baluster shape with a hemmed pedestal, the heads of lions, busts of naked women, palmettes, vine and acanthus leaves, etc. Avisseau mixes with great virtuosity his taste for naturalism and his classical references. Nature and decoration almost erase the form and utilitarian aspect of the piece. The ceramist wants to be a keen observer of the flora with a very precise work on the foliage and colours, in shades of brown and green. Busts of naked women emerge from a decorative “jungle”.