Lions Vase

designed 1926

Lions Vase, designed 1926. Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (French, 1885–1953). Glass (pâte-de-verre); diameter: 16.4 cm (6 7/16 in.); overall: 22.2 cm (8 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Henry H. Hawley 1995.92 The ethereal translucent quality of this vase, where the colors seem to fade into one another, is created through a process of casting in which patterns are created with a mixture of colored glass powders and a binder such as gum arabic then fired to become fused together.

Gabriel Argy-Rousseau was among the most notable artists of the early 1900s working in this style of studio glass production. He eventually developed a semi-industrial technique of using molds to produce multiple works from a single model, but the process still involved extensive manipulation by the artist to achieve an artistic result. The Lions Vase was inspired by ancient Assyrian art and features a fierce composition of a preying lion with curls on its mane that are echoed by the surrounding swirls in the glass, linking subject and form.