Art Institute of Chicago

Girandoles

Isaac F. Baker (American, active mid-19th century)

Date

1848–51

Medium

Gilt bronze, marble, and glass

Culture

Philadelphia

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Gilt girandoles adorned countless parlor mantelpieces and tables in mid-19th century American homes. These particular girandoles refer to James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans , which tells the tragic story of the Mohawks and their attempt to rescue a young white woman abducted by a renegade Huron. The central candelabra shows Chief Chingachgook seated on a log, next to Natty Bumppo, whom he raised to manhood. Behind them stands Chingachgook’s son, Unicas. These three, along with Major Duncan Heyward, seen at the right, set out to free the abducted Cora Munro, at the left.

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