# "Par une telle nuit" [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GALLÉ, Émile]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Crystal, height 13 cm ## Commentary Gallé's work reflects the contemporary interest in botany and entomology, and he turned his knowledge and studies to revitalizing the decorative arts. The present cup is of three-layered crystal, inclusions of metallic parcels \(gold and platinum\), wheel-engraved decoration, partially gilded engraving. In June 1892, the Opéra-Comique de Paris gave a series of performances of Les Troyens à Carthage, an opera by Berlioz strongly condemned at its creation in 1863. Gallé attended one of the performances with enthusiasm. Two years later, he made this cup and engraved on its foot the sentence "Par une telle nuit" \(By such a night ...\), taken from the duet of Dido and Aeneas in the second act. Gallé does not seek to evoke the epic nights to which the two characters allude in their dialogue. What the glassmaker proposes is the composition of a night in which nothing disturbs the beauty, harmonious and melodious as is the music of Berlioz. ## Related artworks - [Art Nouveau vases]() - [Chardon vase]() - [Dawn and Dusk Bed]() - [Decorative vase with crysanthemum motif]() - ["Ombellifères" \(cow parsley\) Cabinet]() - [Orchids vase]() - [Soup tureen]() - [Vase]() - [Vase with lilies and daises]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()