Design for a Chandelier with Sixteen Candles
1632
Medium
Brush and brown, ochre, and gold paint, touches of orange and blue gouache, over a preliminary sketch in gray gouache(?) on vellum prepared with white.
Dimensions
sheet: 11 7/8 x 10 1/16 in. (30.1 x 25.6 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.32
Art Historical Context
### Design for a Chandelier with Sixteen Candles Created in 1632 by Isaak Ehe, a master goldsmith from the renowned Ehe family of Augsburg, Germany, this exquisite drawing is a preparatory design for an opulent chandelier featuring sixteen candles. During the Baroque era, amid the grandeur of Central European courts and churches, such designs captured the period's love for dramatic light and lavish ornamentation. Augsburg was a hub for intricate metalwork, and Ehe's blueprint would have guided silversmiths in crafting a fixture to illuminate sacred spaces or noble halls, symbolizing divine ra...