NUBIAN POLYCHROME WOODEN TORCH HOLDER, 19TH CENTURY VENITIAN WORK

Nubian torchbearer in carved polychrome and gilded wood. It depicts a gondolier standing with one arm raised, clutching a torch. Under his feet, the front part of a gondola with its metal figurehead. Adjacent base painted in imitation porphyry. Venetian work from the late 18th century. Slight wear and chips to the patina. The vogue for exoticism, which began in the 18th century with everything from the Far East, continued in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with everything from Africa and America. The publication of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in 1719, followed by Bernardin de Saint Pierre's Paul et Virginie in 1788, spread the image of the good savage living in an idyllic nature untouched by the white man. Numerous decorative objects represent this theme, confusing the African black, the black slave in North America and the American Indian. The fashion for these good savages lasted well into the 19th century, notably with the publication of Chateaubriand's Atala in 1801. Bibliography: E. Schlumberger, "L'heure exotique", in Connaissance des arts, Paris, 1978, n° 318, p. 30. XIX° period, Circa: 1800 Dim: W:cm, D:cm, H:99cm.