Diego appropriated and completely refreshed the use of contemporary materials such as patinated bronze and clear glass. This lightened the structure visually and allowed him to develop his unexpected plant and animal designs. He enjoyed undercutting the relative rigour of his models by adding a few of his favoured motifs. This formal dialogue between a warm armature and a smiling ornamentation is the hallmark of his poetic invention. His rustic, wild bestiary comes from his childhood — stags and wolves, owls, foxes, ibexes and chamois, which he raced across the mountainsides in his teenage years. They are counterpointed by a tribe of more familiar and even domestic creatures, stamping their feet in a joyous promenade des amis: mice and a cat head waiter, Bucky the elegant greyhound and Séraphine the mischievous Jack Russell, pious frogs and paunchy toads, blackbirds on the lookout and sparrows on the wing…