A set of four Italian gilt-bronze candelabra, attributed to the Valadier workshop, Rome, late 18th century

Prince Marcantonio Borghese (1730-1800) at the Palazzo Borghese, Rome;

Christie's New York, Segoura, 19 Oct 2006, lot 174.

According to the saleroom notice, this lot has been declared of cultural interest by the Italian State. The accompanying report from the Ministry of Culture notes that the number 24 inscribed on one of the candelabra makes it possible to trace this lot back to a set of twenty‑four candelabra created by Luigi Valadier in 1785 for Marcantonio Borghese (1730–1800) for the Palazzo di Roma, likely the residence in Campo Marzio. This commission is documented in a record preserved in the Vatican Archives (file 5349, no. 5504) and published by A. González‑Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi. Arte di corte del XVII e del XVIII secolo, Milano, Longanesi, 1993, I, p. 261, note 96. The candelabra are described as:

Per aver fatto n. 24 candelieri di metallo, con suoi cornucopi a trè lumi, ornati nel piede da festone di lavoro legato con fettuccine, baccellato nella tromba, ornata con mascherine, e foglie frappate; il balustro è scherzato da diversi cartocci scannellati, ornato con cariatidi a trè faccie, e teste di leone con festoncini di lavoro, e cordoncini simili. Da detto balaustro sorge un vasetto scannelato, del quale nascono tre bracci coperti da fogliami legati con fittuccine, ne capi de quali posano le padelline con suoi boccagli ornati, e cisellati a corrispondenza del Candeliere: Termina nella sommità del Vaso con una fiamma, la quale si leva in occasione che si volesse porvi la padellina fatt’à semitria, e corrispondenza del resto. […] Quali candelieri devono servire p. l’appartamento nel palazzo di Roma.

For having made 24 metal candelabras with their triple light branches, adorned along the base with laurel leaves tied with ribbons, gadroons, small masks and leaves; the baluster in the upper part is decorated with flutings and ornated with bust caryatids and below with lion heads and laurel leaf and rope garlands. Above the baluster stands a small fluted vase from which three branches decorated with foliage are tied with small ribbons, at the end of which are placed the drip pans and sockets chiseled in the same way as the candelabras. The central stem ends with a sconce that can be turned and form a drip pan matching the others. Counting the metal, cast iron and chiseling, as well as underfooting lined with Holland cloth imported quickly, the price of each candelabre is 20 scudi, and the set is equivalent to the sum of 480 scudi ... which candelabre should be used for the palace apartment [Borghese] in Rome ....

Of the series of twenty-four candelabra not only survives the present examples but also a pair on the market (Sotheby's, Paris, 19 November 2019, lot 92), and another pair formerly with Benjamin Steinitz.

Gilt-bronze and Valadier

The history of gilt bronze as a medium stretches back to antiquity, and Italy had a strong tradition during the Renaissance and the seventeenth century of producing small to medium-sized figural sculptures in this rather glamorous medium.¹ Despite a common view that eighteenth-century gilt-bronze is an “eminently French discipline”,² excellent examples were often produced across Europe including in Italy by some outstanding workshops like that of Luigi Valadier (1726–1785). Operating in Rome, Valadier ran a sophisticated workshop that produced decorative art of such high quality that he had a strong international clientele – Madame du Barry even ordered some marble, porphyry and gilt-bronze vases for her Versailles apartments (GML 10013.1 and GML 10013.2). Valadier’s life and work has been researched and catalogued in some depth, helped by the survival of many of his drawings and a comprehensive inventory drawn up after his death, and he is one of few eighteenth-century craftsmen to have had a major international monograph exhibition in the 21st century.³

Valadier produced candelabra on several occasions with stems in the form of clustered female busts: pieces of the most famous example, the deser service for Count Braschi in the 1780s, are in the Louvre and sold recently at Sotheby’s as part of the Giordano collection.⁴ There is also an extant drawing by Valadier for a candlestick of very similar form,⁵ and in the 1810 inventory of the Valadier workshop, there was even an entry for “cimase per candelieri a tre teste” [moulds for candlesticks with three heads].⁶

¹ These gilt-bronze works were often after the sculptures of antiquity, the works of contemporary sculptors like Giambologna, or even part of boldly polychromatic sculptures like the silver and gilt-bronze sculpture in the MET (1992.56) or the gilt-bronze and porphyry busts sold at Sotheby’s New York, 27th January 2011, lot 453. The V&A holds a seventeenth-century gilt-bronze that is intriguingly catalogued as a “furniture bronze” (A.71-1956).

² D. Alcouffe et al., Gilt bronzes in the Louvre, Dijon, 2004, p.18.

³ At the Frick Collection and the Borghese in 2018.

⁴ Louvre: MV 1057, MV 854 and MV 867. At auction: Sotheby’s Paris, The Giordano Collection: Une Vision Muséale, 26 November 2024, lot 38.

⁵ The drawing: A. González-Palacios, Luigi Valadier, New York, 2018, p.237, fig 5_27. There is also a Valadier drawing for a similar candlestick held in the Victoria and Albert Museum (D.1532-1898).

⁶ Reproduced in T. L. M. Vale (ed.), The Art of the Valadiers, Turin, 2017, p.136.