1900s Jugendstil Cold-Painted Bronze Sculpture of an Oriental Woman With a Fruit Bowl Attributed to Franz Bergmann, Austria

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1900s Jugendstil cold-painted bronze sculpture of an oriental woman with a fruit bowl attributed to Franz Bergmann, Austria

By: Franz … Read more 1900s Jugendstil cold-painted bronze sculpture of an oriental woman with a fruit bowl attributed to Franz Bergmann, Austria

By: Franz Bergmann
Material: bronze, copper, tin, metal, paint
Technique: cast, molded, patinated, polished, metalwork, painted, hand-painted, cold-painted
Dimensions: 5 in x 8.5 in x 17 in
Date: early 20th century, circa 1900
Style: Jugendstil, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession, Belle Époque
Place of origin: Austria

Raising a shallow dish teeming with fruits, the bronze figure of a nude oriental woman stands poised in delicate balance, her body adorned only with ornamental chains and bangles. Her upward gaze and flowing hair imbue the composition with rhythmic movement, emphasized further by the dynamic tilt of her hips and the nuanced modeling of her limbs. Set atop a finely cold-painted carpet base with fringing detail, the piece evokes a theatrical, almost narrative quality.

Attributed to Franz Bergmann, an Austrian sculptor known for his orientalist subjects and refined metalwork, this sculpture reinterprets his earlier model of Salomé by replacing the severed head of John the Baptist with a harvest of abundance, shifting the scene from biblical drama to allegory of fertility. See less