No. 15 — René Lalique
Corsage ornament 'Dragonfly Woman'
| Artist | René Lalique, 1860–1945 |
|---|---|
| Date | 1897–1898 |
| Medium | gold, plique-à-jour enamel, carved chrysoprase and diamonds |
| City | Lisbon |
| Location | Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon — permanent display in the dedicated Lalique room |
Lalique's most famous jewel fuses a female torso carved from chrysoprase with enormous spread dragonfly wings of translucent plique-à-jour enamel, tail and wings set with diamonds.
As a corsage ornament it epitomises the Symbolist metamorphosis of woman and insect that fascinated Paris at the end of the 1890s.
Collector Calouste Gulbenkian acquired it, and it heads the museum's Lalique room drawn from more than 140 works he commissioned from the designer over nearly thirty years.
Enamel dragonfly wings spreading behind a chrysoprase female torso, glittering with diamond-set tail segments.
The companion piece
Enamel dragonfly wings spreading behind a chrysoprase female torso, glittering with diamond-set tail segments. The algorithm runs live above; when WebGL sleeps, the drawn still takes its place.
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