Getty Museum

Pair of Torchères

Date

about 1748–1753

Medium

Gessoed, painted, and gilt limewood; crushed glass; bases possibly of dogwood

Culture

Dutch

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

Torchères (candlestands) were made to support candelabra, but they also served as lively decorative pieces in their own right. Here, intricately-carved dragons, flowers, and grotesque masks exemplify the fanciful heights and extravagant forms achieved by international craftsmen in the mid-1700s. Crushed and gilded glass set into each base provide a contrasting textural surface to the burnished gilding above. This large pair is similar to a set of four torchères designed by the architect Pieter de Swart and carved by the Italian sculptor Agostino Carlini for the Dutch royal palace Huis ten Bosch (House in the Woods) in the Hague.

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