CHANDELIER MILAN-16

This chandelier is a reinterpretation of the Louis XV style (with its three floors in the form of a capped eight) but also of the First Empire style (with the balloon models with metal crowns). Mixing these two inspirations in an original creation, it is composed of two superimposed hot-air balloons, surmounted by a floor of drops and small arms with rosettes. Two gilded bronze crowns support the sixteen arms of light. The whole is magnified by the laces that adorn the two 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 balloon model with a metal crown.