A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE CANDELABRA

LATE 19TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE CANDELABRA
Late 19th Century
The stems formed as figures of Mercury and Fortune, cast after the models by Giambologna, both holding aloft a three-branch scrolled candelabrum, Mercury with winged helmet and ankles, balancing on his left foot on top of a portrait mask representing wind, holding a caduceus in his left hand, winged Fortune with the wind under her right foot, holding down her billowing veil with her right arm, each on stepped rectangular black slate plinth, the upper part of Mercury's caduceus lacking
26in. (66cm) high (2)

Lot Essay

In choosing the motif of a figure in flight, previously limited to two-dimensional sculpture, Giambologna broke with the traditional laws which governed his art and with his Mercury was to influence the development of sculpture into the Baroque period and beyond.
Documents suggest that Fortune was conceived by Giambologna as a pair to his Mercury.

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