03 — ARTWORK
Paschal candlestick (detail)
- MEDIUM
- Bronze
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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THIS REPRODUCTION
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CURRENT LOCATION · Basilica di Sant'Antonio
- FILE
- 989 × 1400 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The candlestick rests on an ornamentally carved 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. basemolded foot of a pillar or column providing the transition from the plinth to the shaft., so that the bottom plinthsquare or rectangular section forming part of the base of a pillar, column, or statue. is at eye level; it is unashamedly pagan, with four friezes of marine scenes very like Mantegna, other mythological scenes with monstrous creatures, and four large winged sphinxes at the angles. According to a later 16th-century interpretation, the sphinxes represented Astrology, Music, Historiography and Cosmography (geography). Above them are four large panels, three of which show standard themes appropriate to a candlestick that was to be lit on Easter Day: the Adoration of the Magi, Entombment and Descent into Limbo. The last panelTerm in painting for a support of wood, metal, or other rigid substance, as distinct from canvas. Until the adoption of canvas in the 15th century nearly all the movable paintings of Europe were executed on wood, and even up to the beginning of the 17th century it is probable that as much painting was done on the one support as on the other. Painters who worked on a small scale often used copper panels (Elsheimer is a leading example), and in the colonial art of South America copper and tin and even lead and zinc were used. On a larger scale, slate has occasionally been used as a support, notably by Rubens for his altarpiece for Sta Maria in Vallicella (the Chiesa Nuova) in Rome; the picture he originally painted was said to reflect the light unpleasantly and slate was used for the replacement to produce a more matt finish. For wood panels the Italian masters of the Renaissance preferred white poplar, while oak was the most common wood used in northern Europe. Many other types were used, however; analysis of the contents of art galleries has yielded a long list, including beech, cedar, chestnut, fir, larch, linden, mahogany, olive, and walnut. In the 20th century cedar, teak, and dark walnut are favourites, and modern painters have also used plywood, fibre-board, and other synthetic materials as supports., however, depicts a most peculiar, pagan-looking Sacrifice at an Altar Crowned with a Statuette of the Risen Christ, rather than a straightforward depiction of the Resurrection, the event that is crucial in Christian belief and that occurred at Easter.
OTHER WORKS BY ANDREA RICCIO
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r355878aa588335,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Paschal candlestick (detail) by RICCIO, Andrea},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/riccio-andrea-r2e0174fef6d06b/paschal-candlestick-detail-r355878aa588335},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.