Marked by Martin-Guillaume Biennais (born France, 1764–1843)
Probably after designs by Charles Percier (born France, 1764–1838) and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (born France, 1762–1853)
Paris
Candelabra (one of a pair), from a Service Made for Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese
INV-2510
Marked by Martin-Guillaume Biennais (born France, 1764–1843)
Probably after designs by Charles Percier (born France, 1764–1838) and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (born France, 1762–1853)
Paris1794–1819
Candelabra (one of a pair), from a Service Made for Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese
Marked by Martin-Guillaume Biennais (born France, 1764–1843) Probably after designs by Charles Percier (born France, 1764–1838) and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (born France, 1762–1853) Paris →napoleonicempireNeoclassicismcandleholder - candelabracandleholder
Date
1794–1819
Medium
Gilded silver and gilded bronze
Dimensions
H.: 54.6 cm (21 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Charles V. Hickox
This object for the dining table is part of a vast service made for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline on the occasion of her marriage to the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, Sixth Prince of Sulmona.
In the years after the French Revolution, architects and designers adopted the visual language of ancient Greece and Rome to express the new imperial order. Napoleon, hoping to promote Paris’s luxury trades, commissioned several silver dinner services as gifts to be sent abroad. The slender outlines and smooth surfaces of the objects in the Borghese service contrast with the rich decoration.
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