A Pair of Candlesticks with Gilt Serpents and Lyres

Gilt bronze and copper
Vienna
Late 18th century
h. 51 cm (20 in.)

Several features suggest the attribution of this pair of candlesticks to a Viennese workshop: the decorative repertoire, derived from French neoclassical bronzes and combining “acanthus and palmette”, “ornamental use of musical instruments” and “animal motifs” (Leisching, 1903, p. 431); the use of gilt metal chains, found on several chandeliers in the collection of the Möbelmuseum in Vienna; and above all the use of gilt copper for the base, the drip pans and probably the strings of the lyre — a material and technique that betray the persistence, in the Viennese decorative arts, of a metalworking tradition that had remained, prior to the importation of French bronzes, “at the primitive stage of simple Gürtlerei” (ibid., p. 429).

Be that as it may, these candlesticks, of a hitherto unrecorded model, display chasing of a high order: the modelling of the undulating acanthus, laurel and oak leaves, the matted grounds of the copper base and the flutes of the flaming torch, the modelling of the flame itself, the texture of the serpent’s skin, the rosettes and volutes of the lyre — which in places rival the contemporary work of the French bronzists.

See Eduard Leisching, “Die Bronzen im Hof-Mobiliendepôt in Wien”, in Monatsschrift herausgegeben vom Österreichischen Museum für Kunst und Industrie, VI, 1903, Vienna.