ABSTRACT

This chapter explains what could account for Emile Gallé's choice to pair his elegantly decorated and complex creations with the evidence of their own vulnerability. It argues that the answer lies in the artist's unprecedented efforts to transform his installation into a powerfully symbolic statement in support of the Dreyfusard cause. Gallé's own efforts to defend the Republican ideals of truth and justice took center stage in the struggle to clear Dreyfus's name. The artist's support for the Dreyfusard cause would earn him a notoriety unprecedented in the annals of glassmaking, transforming the artist-industrialist from Nancy into a public intellectual. In The Fig Tree, which featured prominently on the mantel of the Glass Furnace, Gallé responds directly to the anti-Semitism that was sweeping through his native city by creating a work that blends Christian and Jewish symbolism in a call for religious tolerance.