Napoleon III table clock. France, ca.1870-1880.

Napoleon III table clock. France, ca.1870-1880.
Gilt bronze and marbled marble.
Slight losses in the marble. The clock mechanism needs to be overhauled. It has a key.
Measurements: 68 x 57 x 29 cm.

Napoleon III period table clock, endowed with remarkable symbolic and artistic richness, merging mythological and stylistic elements characteristic of the period. The sculpture in gilded bronze, wrapped in a loose tunic skillfully draped, practices decorative incisions on a jar that holds on his knees using a chisel. The figure is an allegory of the arts, an idea that is reinforced by the relief, also in bronze, which decorates the marble base: goddesses and muses of the arts, among which we recognize Artemis (Apollo's sister) for carrying a lyre. A lion skin rests under the seat of the main effigy, perhaps in allusion to Odysseus, but in any case linked to the strength and protection of nature. During the Second Empire (under the reign of Napoleon III) an eclectic style was developed, based on the combination of neoclassical and rococo elements, as well as the reinterpretation of mythological motifs. The dial of the clock has Roman numerals. It retains the key.