Empire lamp in glass and gilt bronze. Around 1815. Attributed to Claude Galle.
Ceiling lamp with 16 arms formed by a central axis from which several circles, with different radii, depart. The lower one presents a decoration in relief of flowers; the middle is decorated in the same way, and from it arise the arms that end in the tubes that held the candles, formed by stems and decorated with putti holding garlands and acroteras; the upper one, with the same flowers, has more acrotrades that start from scrolls and plant motifs. The three rings are joined and highlighted by polygonal transparent glass beads and tears of the same material, faceted to highlight the brilliance produced in them by the lights. It has been adapted to use with electric light.
This type of chandelier, with their arms reduced in size and hidden among a multitude of glass beads, was very common in the main French residences since the seventeenth century. The Empire style is known as the one that took place in France towards the beginning of the 19th century, during the government of Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte (1769-1821), and that, broadly speaking, reworked the Directoire Style, complicating it and highlighting the opulence, but maintaining the direct influences of works of classical antiquity that it had, especially those of the time of Imperial Rome. Note the acroteras, scrolls, garlands, stems ... in this example.
In France, as early as the seventeenth century, the government paid unusual attention to legislation and the creation of highly specialized guilds for working with bronze and its gilding, and the formation of workshops that worked with rich materials to combine them with metal. As a result, the French specialized foundries managed to rise to the primacy in the realization of all kinds of pieces to decorate interiors from the end of the 17th to the 19th century, with clocks, chandeliers, small-sized sculptures, etc.
Claude Galle (Villepreux, Versailles, 1759 - Paris, 1815) was one of the main bronzistas of the final periods of Louis XVI and the Empire. He began his training in Paris as an apprentice to the founder Pierre Foy, whose daughter he married in 1784. He acquired the rank of master two years later, and succeeded his father-in-law at the head of the workshop from 1788, making him soon one of the finest in Europe, with about 400 employees. Named "Garde-Meuble" by the French Crown, between 1786 and 1788 and under the direction of the sculptor Jean Hauré, he carried out numerous and outstanding works. He collaborated with numerous artists, including Pierre-Philippe Thomire, and most of the bronzes at the Château de Fontainebleau came from his hands. Despite his success, and due to the delay of his patrons in making payments, he suffered financial difficulties. His workshop continued to operate under the direction of his son, Gérard-Jean Galle (1788-1846) after his death. His works are preserved, in addition to outstanding private collections, in the Saint-Cloud palace, in the Trianons, Rambouillet, Monte Cavallo, Rome, the Marmottan Museum in Paris, the Jerez de la Frontera Clock Museum in Spain, the Victoria & Albert from London, etc. It should be noted that all these large lamps were made only by prior commission in his workshop, and that he made, for example, one in 1807 for the Palais de Meudon, and another with 24 lights for the Salon des Grands Officiers of the Grand Trianons."
· Size: 100x100x120 cms.
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