Maléficia (1905).
Much of the jewellery and sculpture produced by Phillipe Wolfers demonstrates the tendency of Art Nouveau and decorative Symbolism to evolve from Decadence to full-blown Gothic. The sinister recurs in Wolfers’ creations whether in the form of baleful females such as Malèficia and his Medusa pendant, or in the shape of bats, insects and the ubiquitous fin de siècle serpent. There’s more Wolfers on the web than there was a couple of years ago but still too little; I scanned Malèficia from a book and swiped the bat brooch belt buckle (also a book scan) from Beautiful Century.
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Large dragonfly (1903–04).
Le Jour et la Nuit (1897).
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Lalique’s dragonflies
• Lucien Gaillard
• The Masks of Medusa
Talk about dripping with decadence! (I suppose that phrase doesn’t really make any sense, but you know what I mean!)
AND—at first I thought that bust in the top picture was made from chocolate!
Yes it does look chocolatey. It’s actually red porphyry and ivory with amethyst.
Correction, my friend: the bat is a belt-buckle (at least that’s what the book says). The Maléficia sculpture is simply amazing, thank you.
Oops! I should have checked…. Thanks for the correction.