Masterpieces on the wrist: works of art reproduced in miniature form.
When watchmakers partner with a museum housing one of the world's largest collections with over 480,000 works of art, they're spoiled for choice when it comes to sources of inspiration. Decision-making gets even more complicated when the watchmaker teaming up with the Louvre happens to be Vacheron Constantin — a manufacture where the only limit is an artist's imagination.
The watchmaker has already taken on some works of art. Vacheron Constantin created a unique piece for the Bid For the Louvre charity auction towards the end of 2020. Bidders were given the chance to choose an artwork from the Louvre in a private tour to be reproduced on the dial, followed by an exclusive visit to Maison Vacheron Constantin.
Vacheron Constantin's lot went for EUR 280,000 back then, second only to a work with the generic title "Peinture" by Pierre Soulages from 1962 which sold for 1.4 million. Anyone with an interest in this particular painter should check out the watch dial by Baume & Mercier, where his style of painting has been reproduced.
Vacheron Constantin became an official partner of the Louvre in 2019 but the watchmaker had already participated in work to restore a clock called La Création du Monde in 2016, which King Louis XV received as a gift in 1754.
More products of their partnership were seen at the Homo Faber exhibition in April: Vacheron Constantin presented two unique pieces inspired by Japanese mythology, while the Louvre's artisans created a quadriptych engraved and gilded with the same motifs as the watches.
But the truly landmark project was still to come: four novelties for the Métiers d'Art collection in honor of four ancient civilizations. Famous artifacts were chosen to represent each civilization: a sphinx sculpture carved out of a solid block of pink granite measuring 1.83 m in height and 4.8 m in width (Grand Sphinx de Tanis); the lion frieze from the Palace of Darius at Susa (Lion de Darius); an Ancient Greek sculpture called Winged Victory of Samothrace, also known as the Nike of Samothrace statue (Victoire de Samothrace); and a marble bust of Caesar Augustus (Buste d’Auguste).
Modern artists used numerous techniques to reproduce the artwork created by masters of Antiquity. For example, the enamel center of the marble portrait of Emperor Augustus is encircled by a micro-mosaic consisting of 660 fragments from seven different stones (quartzite, opal, dumortierite, mochaite, red jasper, grossular and red aventurine). It’s inspired by a fourth-century mosaic discovered in the Israeli city of Lod, while the carved depiction of the bust is crafted from gold.
The dial with glazed bricks which provide a backdrop for the lion have been reproduced using stone marquetry, pieced together from 69 different fragments. The sapphire crystal engraved by metallisation bears cuneiform script taken from a tablet with one of the first texts written by Darius upon his ascent to the throne.
The dial with the carved gold applique representing the head of the sphinx is coated with rich blue enamel as its base. Enamel is also used for Nike of Samothrace, where the goddess of victory is encircled by a periphery created using the grisaille enameling technique which depicts decorative friezes taken from two Greek vases.
Timekeeping indications are secondary to the artwork on each timepiece. Vacheron Constantin uses the familiar 2460 G4/2 movement with four apertures instead of hands. The movement's rotor is decorated with engraving illustrating the Louvre's eastern facade.