Candelabras With Five Flames

France, late 19th century

Candelabras with five flames

(2) Gilded bronze and cloisonné polychrome enamels, h. cm 39

This pair of candlesticks is part of the refined French production that in the course of the nineteenth century brought back to life decorative techniques belonging to a long and ancient goldsmith and artisan tradition as, in this case, the cloisonné. This technique, also known as Bisanzio’s luster, consists in applying metallic filigrees, in this case in gilded bronze, to a support and then filling the alveoli created by the texture, called cloisons in French, with enamel, thus creating tiles divided by metal strips. Among the various workshops that distinguished themselves in the production of enamels, since the Middle Ages, must be mentioned above all the craftsmen of Limoges, famous throughout Europe for the extreme quality of their creations; Despite the passage of centuries they were able to adapt their work to the taste of the time, adopting new materials, such as porcelain, or changing the use of those already known. From the relics and covers in enamelled precious metals of the Middle Ages, craftsmen came to this kind of products, where the ancient technique is preserved but under new spoils: the application on the fusto mistilineo, On the bases and brackets wax shows geometric and phyto-morphic motifs that demonstrate a refinement of design in line with a renewed interest in the graceful and graceful forms of the French rococo, developed precisely at the end of the century.The floral element, the vegetal undulations of the arms, the curled feet and the arabesques of the enamel confirm these indications, as well as the base to rocaille, term from which precisely derives the rococo and that indicated a type of decoration executed with stones, Rocks and shells, used as embellishment of garden pavilions and caves. The splendid combination of gilded bronze with blue, white and blue enamels gives life to a refined and elegant synthesis, richly adorned but at the same time lightened in its structure by the undulating course of the lines that lighten and thicken the volume of the candlesticks.