// OAK AND GOLD LEAF
// L. 54 x W. 54 x H. 38 CM

// UNIQUE PIECE

An ancient flower, this Corinthian capital is an opulent souvenir, a witness to a baroque, grandiose, distant era. It seems to be in complete contrast to our contemporary era, that its 300 years of age trace a link so brilliantly visible that it escapes us at first glance. Do you understand it?

This soft golden wood with a patina has a sinuous path to contemporary design. Appreciated in ancient Egypt for its pharaonic creations, gilding on wood is not the prerogative of a bygone era. It evolved slowly, taming the supports until the 17th and 18th centuries: the gilders' know-how then reached a dazzling and unequalled mastery which could not do without a support sculpted to its measure. The fastidious process of gilding on wood thus goes hand in hand with a high level of carving, both requiring patience and delicacy. Because wood is not as easy to prepare as it is to paint. This organic material with its sometimes sculptural grain is first covered with a coating that is able to follow its breathing according to hygroscopic variation. The gilder wants a surface that is as smooth as possible where the hollows and reliefs draw a pattern either in the wood or in the primer. The gold leaf is then applied with water or a mixture (a dried linseed oil). Finally, the burnishing of the golden wood wields the agate stone to reveal a shine and patina that the craftsman can skilfully nuance according to the desired effect. This process, like all complex techniques, has all the appeal of simplicity. However, the 19th and 20th centuries proved by their creams and other gilding bombs that these ersatz were nothing more than false imitations of a precious know-how that was dying.

Even today, skilled gilders are a sought-after rarity. And if the gilder who illuminated this capital met aesthetic criteria which are (almost) no longer ours, it is clear that gilding on wood has never been abandoned. Art Deco, above all, uses it discreetly on pure surfaces, initiating a new form of modernity for this ancient technique. Gilded wood is no longer the imitation of solid gold, but the very materiality of light, a vibration that haloes the shapes until they flutter. Between a Memento Paradisi nimbed in a gold nimbus almost reminiscent of sacred fire and a ringed and nervous Go Between, gold is not only light, it is a living emanation in movement. A trait of character that exalts the beauty of wood, bringing together know-how and an assumed modernity. Baroque quotations, however, invite themselves, taking side paths from Roman canopies to a Vis sans fin of golden beechwood.

Galerie MICA sees contemporary creation as the continuation and experimentation of modern and ancestral craft techniques. This gilded wooden capital is the first object of a new project: to illustrate the biases taken by techniques and objects to reach us. Explaining these meanders linking the past to the present is not a whim of an aesthete. It is a matter of valuing each actor in creation, from the one who imagines to the one who realizes. The confrontation of ideas with technical possibilities is a source of emulation and innovation. Through a selection of objects, Galerie MICA will henceforth offer you the opportunity to explore these exchanges in order to highlight the value of each of these creators.

Text by Marielle Brie

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