A DIRECTOIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED-BRONZE TWELVE-LIGHT CHANDELIER

CIRCA 1795

Details

A DIRECTOIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED-BRONZE TWELVE-LIGHT CHANDELIER
Circa 1795
The circular corona headed by five scrolled sunflower rosettes, with hanging chains to the four candlearms, with cylindrical shaftleading to an urn-shaped stem issuing floral stems and flower-heads, the urn supported on ram's mask monopodiae on a canted square plinth mounted with foliate bosses and rosette decorated frieze with four stepped candlearms, each with three scrolled branches with tapered bobèches between scrolled floral cast branches, drilled for electricity and electrified
47in. (119cm.) high, 33in. (84cm.) wide

Provenance

Acquired for a Philadelphia town house from Nesle Inc., New York.

Literature

C. Irvine, The Town House, Bantam, 1998, p.70 (illustrated in situ).

Lot Essay

A rare survivor of the socially and politically tumultuous years of the Directoire (1794-98), the contrasting somber patinated bronze and the rich golden ormolu of this chandelier captures the dual nature of the period. Centered by a Grecian urn set with bacchic ram's masks and employing a simplfied grace and delicacy through rectilinear design, the chandelier further manifests the transition of style from the opulent courtly style of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette towards the more classicizing tendencies of the Empire under Napoleon.

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