Amédée Ozenfant

This composition is crowned by a classical cornice, or molding, which echoes the swelling curves of an arrangement of vessels. Their simplified forms include a Greek amphora and a dark brown wine jug whose spherical shape and materiality are emphasized by the concentric patterns of grooved brushstrokes. These elements are representative of Purism, a movement that sought a return to pictorial clarity and order in the years following World War I. Its adherents investigated relationships between painting and architecture, and depicted recognizable objects in ways that echoed the precise, unornamented forms of the modern machine age.