Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

AN IMPORTANT ITALIAN BRONZE HANGING LAMP

PROBABLY 17TH / 18TH CENTURY, AFTER A DESIGN BY GIAN LORENZO BERNINI (1598-1680) FOR THE CHIGI CHAPEL

designed as three flying putti holding aloft a gilded crown formed from eight-pointed stars, on chains

40cm high, 30cm diameter (excluding chains)

Catalogue Note

A near identical 'eternal' lamp is in the Chigi Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, designed in 1656/7 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (b.1598-1680). The lamp was modelled by Peter Verpoorten (d.1659) a Flemish assistant of Bernini, cast by Francuccio Francucci and gilded by Francesco Perone. The design of the lamp is a symbolic representation of the Virgin's crown, as well as the Chigi family arms, taking the form of six mountains surmounted by an eight-pointed star. A similar lamp was created for the Cybo Chapel, the second external nave chapel in the Santa Maria del Popolo to have a dome and consecrated in 1687. A further copy was made in 1885 for the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia. Another, lacking the star surmounts to the crown, was included at the 'Let There Be Light' Exhibition, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford,Connecticut, USA, 1964, item 40. The continued design of Putti supporting a crown can be clearly seen in an important set of five silver chandeliers commissioned by George II in 1736-7, for Leineschloss, Hanover and designed by William Kent. Two are at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge, (NT 516422.1)