Twelve-light chandelier (Lustre)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gilt bronze was used extensively for different types of lighting, ranging from freestanding candlesticks and candelabra to hanging chandeliers and lanterns. The metal body of this graceful chandelier is composed of a vase adorned with horned rams’ masks and sphinxes from which four pairs of branches emerge. A staff crowned with a pinecone or thyrsus, traditionally carried by Bacchus and his followers, is placed on top surrounded by four children dressed in loincloths each blowing a horn-shaped candle branch. The children provide a diverting presence tempering the severe neoclassical design. The combination of patinated and gilt bronze offers the kind of rich and sophisticated contrast favored during the late eighteenth century.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art