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Louis Ernest BARRIAS (Fr,1841-1905)

Louis Ernest BARRIAS (Fr,1841-1905)

        
Regular price ¥1,800,000 JPY
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Product number: F0432
Title: Nature revealing herself to science
Artist:Louis Ernest BARRIAS (Fr,1841-1905)
Media: Bronze, marble
Size: H58cm (including marble base)
Remarks: There are repair marks on the base and the little finger of the left hand.signed with a foundry inscription and a foundry cachet ( SUSSE FRERES EDITEURS, DE PARIS ) on the side.
Literature : Harold Berman, Bronzes-sculptors & founders 1800-1930, vol2. Schiffer publishing.1994, P375 Pl.1387. Pierre Kjellberg, Bronzes of the 19th century, Schiffer publiahing, 1994, P20.

Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science is a world-renowned allegorical sculpture created in the late 19th century by the French sculptor Louis-Ernest Barrias. The original version, carved in marble, is now housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Both its subject matter and mode of expression bear the strong imprint of the Art Nouveau period. The work depicts a personification of “Nature” in the form of a woman—identified with Isis, the goddess of ancient Egyptian mythology—who gently removes the veil covering her body, revealing her face and bare chest in a fleeting, intimate moment.
This scene may be interpreted as a metaphor for the gradual unveiling of nature’s secrets through the progress of science. At the same time, it also suggests that, even with the power of scientific inquiry, nature retains mysteries that cannot be fully revealed. It is precisely this openness to multiple interpretations that constitutes one of the sculpture’s most compelling qualities.
More than a purely aesthetic object, the work can be seen as a visual “specimen” of its time—an embodiment of the intellectual climate of the late 19th century. It symbolically captures the profound shift in humanity’s understanding of nature brought about by the scientific revolutions of the era, and invites reflection on the ongoing reconfiguration of the relationship between humankind and the natural world.

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