Pair of candlesticks (Flambeaux or chandeliers)

TAGS

Download or edit the free picture Pair of candlesticks (Flambeaux or chandeliers) for GIMP online editor. It is an image that is valid for other graphic or photo editors in OffiDocs such as Inkscape online and OpenOffice Draw online or LibreOffice online by OffiDocs.

In the era before gas lighting and electricity, candles played a principal role in illuminating the interior of a house. The number of candles lit was an indication of the status of the owner; beeswax candles, preferred over tallow because they burned cleaner and had a more pleasant smell, were enormously expensive. No wonder, then, that visitors commented on the quantity of light at certain events \u2014 as Philip Thicknesse did in his Useful Hints to Those Who Make the Tour of France (1768). The table at a dinner he attended in 1767 "was illuminated with upwards of sixty wax lights."The exuberantly asymmetrical model for this candlestick was the work of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, one of the leading Rococo designers. Active also as architect, painter, and silversmith to Louis XV, Meissonnier rendered three drawings in order to show from all sides this candlestick with its loosely spiraling stem. The drawings were engraved by Gabriel Huquier (1695\u20131772) and published in Dousième Livre des oeuvres de J. A. Messonnier: Livre de chandeliers de sculpture en argent (1734\u201335). The design, incorporating shells, floral sprays, and even a butterfly in a whirlwind of motion, became very popular and was executed in both silver and gilt bronze. The quality of the chasing and gilding of this pair with its burnished and matte areas is outstanding.

Free picture Pair of candlesticks (Flambeaux or chandeliers) integrated with the OffiDocs web apps