Vase (vase gothique Fragonard) (one of a pair) manufactured 1832, decorated 1844 Model designed by Alexandre Evariste Fragonard French These two vases decorated in the neo-gothic taste embody the eclecticism that characterizes so much of the art produced in mid-nineteenth-century France. The model for this vase was designed by Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (French, 1780-1850), one of the most prolific designers at the Sèvres factory during the 1820s and 1830s. Given the title vase gothique Fragonard at Sèvres, the model transforms a Medici vase shape (entry 74) with the addition of prominent scrolling handles that are embellished with trefoils and stylized vegetation in low relief.1 The elaborate profile of the handles diminishes the essentially Neoclassical character of the vase’s form, and instead, the form com-bines harmoniously with the painted neo- Gothic decoration to suggest, however loosely, a work of art made in the late fifteenth century.2 Nonetheless, the Gothic quality o