Ananas

The Ananas, first cast by Jean Charles in 1966, is often read today as a mere tropical motif. The truth lies elsewhere. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the pineapple was the most expensive fruit in the world. In France, Louis XIV had it grown under glass at the château de Choisy-le-Roi for his mistress, Madame de Maintenon. English aristocrats rented it rather than ate it, presenting the same specimen at several successive dinners as proof of their wealth. Within two centuries the fruit became the absolute emblem of aristocratic hospitality: cast here in gilt bronze, the scales of its skin finely chased, it rises on a foot crowned with leaves. The shade, in black brass lined with gold, brings out its gleam.