CHANDELIER MILAN-16

This chandelier is a reinterpretation of the Louis XV style (with its three tiers shaped like an inverted figure-eight) as well as the First Empire style (with hot-air balloon motifs featuring metal crowns). Blending these two inspirations into an original design, it consists of two stacked hot-air balloons, topped by a tier of drop-shaped pendants and small arms with rosettes. Two gilded bronze crowns support the sixteen light arms. The whole is enhanced by the lacework adorning the two hot-air balloons and by mother-of-pearl pendants. Bronze rosettes and a globe surrounded by a dagger complete this assembly. A similar model in the Louis XV style can be found in the collections of the Louvre Museum, dating from 1750 (inv. O.A. 5137). The chandelier in the Empress’s bathroom at the Château de Fontainebleau, dating from 1809, also offers an eloquent parallel to the hot-air-balloon model with a metal crown.