A Pair of Large Louis XV Style Figural Candelabra

Description

A pair of Large Louis XV Style Gilt and Patinated Bronze and Marble Figural Candelabra.

Each modelled with naturalistically cast rocaille and laurel leaf candle branches above cherubs, one holding an anchor and the other an hourglass, seated on pierced pedestals and spreading fleur de pêcher marble socles.

France, Circa 1850-80.

These palatial candelabra are modelled with charming Cherubic figures, known as putti. One putto holds an hourglass, a symbol that human existence is fleeting, and that the “sands of time” will run out. The other putto holds an anchor, symbolising hope, steadfastness and security, especially during the more uncertain experiences of life, such as sea voyages.

Putto appeared in Greek and Roman art as personifications of love and we’re revived in mythological and religious paintings and sculpture, especially of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. By the eighteenth century, in the art of the Rococo, putti are employed to express a variety of emotions and sentiments and to personify different attributes, such as the elements, the arts and the seasons.

François Boucher (1703–1770), the most famous painter of the Rococo style, made drawings of putti as preparatory sketches for his paintings which were often reproduced by printmakers. The sculptor Claude Michel, known as Clodion (1738–1814), developed Boucher’s style creating terracotta sculptural compositions of revelling cherubs. The designs for the putti to the present candelabra are indebted to the Rococo style, but are larger in scale as becoming of the opulent aspirations of the mid-19th century when sculptors such as Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) created monumental figural candelabra for the magnificent private palaces and municipal projects of Baron Haussmann’s Paris.