BARRIAS, Louis-Ernest
(b. 1841, Paris, d. 1905, Paris)

Nature Exposing Herself to Science

1899
Marble and onyx, height 200 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

This allegory is a polylithic sculpture, which means that it consists of various natural-coloured stones: white marble, yellow Sienese stone, onyx from Algeria, and gray granite, malachite, lapis lazuli. This lifesize polychromatic figures, presented at the 1899 Salon, is the best known of the sculptor's works.