Feuchère is known for his elegant modelling of art objects in bronze: decorative statuettes and knickknacks of all sorts designed to adorn middle-class homes. The July Monarchy witnessed the new fashion for small objects in bronze, which replaced biscuit-ware (unglazed porcelain) on mantelpieces and as table centrepieces and clock decorations. Seated in the meditative pose appropriate to great men, Raphael is casually pointing to a sketch of one of his Madonnas. That Italian Renaissance master, the very image of perennially youthful genius, was almost a cult figure throughout the nineteenth century.