Oak firepiece with Caryatids and a Campan marble plate - wood

Description

Carved oak and Campan marble mantel with a trumeau in the Neo-Renaissance style from the 19th century. Two caryatids adorn the jambs, on the entablature a rectangular cartouche made of scrolls of foliage frames an inlaid slab of Campan marble. A frieze of stylized shells and oak leaves runs across the top of the entablature flanked by inlaied rectangles of Campan marble above the jambs. The trumeau panel, a grotesque maze of carvings, is framed by a pair of fluted Corinthian pilasters. Heads of fauns left and right set in curlicue shapes, a female mask above, a bearded faun bellow are linked by a maze of intricate shapes : shells, arabesques and geometrical lines, all framing a central shield adorned with fleur de lys. A cornice with a frieze of modillions and fluting completes the composition of this mantel. The structure of the mantel fully participates in its decoration, with some parts recessed and others protruding, the whole underlined by moldings.