03 — ARTWORK
Three-branched candlestick
MEISSONNIER, Juste-Aurèle · 1735 →
- MEDIUM
- Silver, height 38 cm
- TYPE
- Other
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 704 × 1200 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The eighteenth century in France was an extraordinary period for the European decorative arts. It was characterized by an intense craft activity. There were many orders from the aristocracy and other grand families for interior and exterior ornaments: fireplaces, buffets, oven grates, marbleloosely applied to any hard limestone that can be sawn into thin slabs and will take a good polish so that it is suitable for decorative work; more strictly, it refers to metamorphosed limestones whose structure has been recrystallized by heat or pressure. Marbles are widely disseminated and occur in a great variety of colours and patterns, but certain types have been particularly prized by sculptors. The most famous of Greek white marbles in the ancient world was the close-grained Pentelic, which was quarried at Mount Pentelicon in Attica. The Elgin Marbles are carved in Pentelic. Widely used also were the somewhat coarser-grained translucent white marbles from the Aegean islands of Paros and Naxos. Parian marble was used for the celebrated Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The pure white Carrara marble, quarried at Massa, Carrara, and Pietra Santa in Tuscany from the 3rd century BC, is the most famous of all sculptors' stones. It was used for the Apollo Belvedere, and was much favoured in the Renaissance, particularly by Michelangelo, who often visited the quarries to select material for his work. Neoclassical sculptors also favoured Carrara marble because of its ability to take a smooth, sleek surface, but it can look rather 'dead' compared with some of the finest Greek marbles. basins, garden vases, braziers, chimney pieces, gilded bronzeAn alloy of copper (usually about 90 per cent) and tin, often also containing small amounts of other metals such as lead or zinc. Since antiquity it has been the metal most commonly used in cast sculpture because of its strength, durability, and the fact that it is easily workable - both hot and cold - by a variety of processes. It is easier to cast than copper because it has a lower melting-point, and its great tensile strength makes possible the protrusion of unsupported parts - an advantage over marble sculpture. The colour of bronze is affected by the proportion of tin or other metals present, varying from silverish to a rich, coppery red, and its surface beauty can be enhanced when it acquires a patina. chandeliers, etc. Gifts of porcelain and objets d'art were presented by the court of France to foreign courts. The eighteenth century teemed with ideas, but it above all entailed promotion of objects.
During the first quarter of the century, when a penchant for the unusual favoured the RococoA style of design, painting, and architecture dominating the 18th century, often considered the last stage of the Baroque. Developing in the Paris townhouses of the French aristocracy at the turn of the 18th century, Rococo was elegant and ornately decorative, its mood lighthearted and witty. Louis XV furniture, richly decorated with organic forms, is a typical product. Leading exponents of the Rococo sryle included the French painters Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), and the German architect Johann Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). Rococo gave way to Neo-classicism. style, the goldsmith Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier left Turin for Paris and became famous for a candlestick he made for the king. This was a veritable manifesto of twisting, spiraling metalwork in which the motifs blend into one another.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r1544f8d098a1bd,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Three-branched candlestick by MEISSONNIER, Juste-Aurèle},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-09},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/meissonnier-juste-aurle-r08682a4ade2c6b/three-branched-candlestick-r1544f8d098a1bd},
urldate = {2026-09-09},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-09. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
