Bronze Garden Vase with Portrait Medallions and Hybrid Lion-shaped Handles, possibly related to the Gardens of Versailles 1673

This sheet shows Claude Ballin the Elder's design for a Bronze Garden Vase with Portrait Medallions and Hybrid Lion-shaped Handles. Ballin, who lived from 1615 to 1678, was a goldsmith attached to the French royal court. The vase, possibly intended for the Gardens of Versailles, is a potent emblem of power and the artistic and cultural ambitions of the French monarchy. Note the hybrid lion handles, which could symbolize strength and authority. The portrait medallions are also telling; they suggest a lineage of power, perhaps an ancestral nod to rulers of the past. Imagine how such a vase, in gleaming bronze, would have looked placed within a carefully orchestrated garden. While the vase is undoubtedly a celebration of authority, it is simultaneously a work of remarkable artistic craft. It embodies a tension between the personal expression of the artist and the demands of courtly taste. It reflects the societal values placed on wealth, status, and the performance of power.