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Director’s Choice – Simplicity, Harmony & Restraint A Pair of 18th Century Cassolettes
Today TEFAF Maastricht opens to the public, this week’s ‘Director’s Choice’ focuses on one of our highlights; A Pair of Exquisite Eighteenth Century Cassolette Candlesticks.
Following the incredible archaeological evidence gathered through excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii, there was an eagerness to replicate the ordered simplicity of classical art and architecture. An association was formed between the moral purity promoted by the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theories and the appreciation of nature, signifying wider cultural perceptions of artistic expression and personal character. This was reflected in the designs produced during this period. Despite the extravagance of rocaille design also remaining popular, neoclassicism coincided with an understanding that aesthetic harmony, achieved by considered and measured simplicity, was an authentic means of replicating virtue and purity of spirit.
Following the incredible archaeological evidence gathered through excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii, there was an eagerness to replicate the ordered simplicity of classical art and architecture. An association was formed between the moral purity promoted by the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theories and the appreciation of nature, signifying wider cultural perceptions of artistic expression and personal character. This was reflected in the designs produced during this period. Despite the extravagance of rocaille design also remaining popular, neoclassicism coincided with an understanding that aesthetic harmony, achieved by considered and measured simplicity, was an authentic means of replicating virtue and purity of spirit.
