PUTTI GUIRLANDE LIGHTS France Louis XIV period,... Lot 61

PUTTI GUIRLANDE LIGHTS France Louis XIV period, circa 1700 Carved and gilded wood H. 120 cm, D. 91 cm PROVENANCE Former Bernard Steinitz collection This rare chandelier with six arms of light suspended by a theory of cherubs attached to a garland of flowers evokes at first sight the baroque art of Italian palaces, their stucco, woodwork and lights populated with putti (fig. 1). However, the delicate acanthus scrolls ending in plant corollas carrying the bobeches take us back to the art of the Grand Siècle, in the salons of Mercury and Apollo at Versailles, where there was a pair of chandeliers with the royal crown carried by three Loves (fig. 2). With its female masks with fan-shaped headdresses, our luminaire is similar to the eight-light chandelier that André-Charles Boulle had decorated with comparable female allegories, arranged at the base "en console" (fig. 3). (fig. 3).