Sep Ancient Art & Paintings & Collectibles
Lot 228:
Description
4.5*7.5cm Wt:61.22g
Official French horologist: Jacques Gustave Sandoz.French gold hallmarks stamped on brooch and crown. Double-sided crystal globe open-face pocket watch.Shaped as a celestial sphere encircled by the twelve zodiac signs.Hand-wound mechanical movement with ruby bearings.Theme: Nietzsche’s "Eagle and Serpent in Struggle".Dual-purpose: wearable as a pocket watch or a brooch pendant.Hand-engraved gold wings and serpent scales with matte satin gold finish.In his prose poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the philosopher Nietzsche depicted the two artistic symbols of the eagle and serpent:The eagle embodies intellect and spirit;the serpent symbolises matter and desire.Spirit and desire stand opposed yet interdependent: spirit engages reality through matter, while matter elevates its worth through spirit.Art and culture spring from the same source. The motif of "eagle and serpent in struggle" often signifies the ideal unity of spirit and matter.Sublime spiritual pursuit cannot be realised without the grounded, serpentine material life; mere material existence cannot attain transcendence without the eagle’s far-sighted vision.Only the organic union of eagle and serpent enables the continuous advancement of human civilisation.
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