Exceptional Pair of Two-Light Wall Lights made of Finely Chased Bronze with Matte and Burnished Finishing
“The Entwined Snakes”

Paris, Transition period between Louis XV-Louis XVI, circa 1770.
Each wall light is made of finely chased gilt bronze with matte and burnished finishing, featuring a central stem with a matted ground that is decorated with bead friezes, terminates in scrolling consoles, and is flanked by olive branches. From the stem issue the two curved light arms, adorned with leaves and terminating in triglyphs from which hang laurel swags that are attached to the central stem by spiraling rosettes. The nozzles and drip pans are adorned with gadrooning, foliage and rudented fluting. The lower portions of the wall lights feature bands decorated with piaster friezes and are further adorned with Greek key motifs, foliage, and fluting, as well as bead chains; they terminate in leafy bouquets. The wall lights are suspended from gilt bronze ribbons attached to discs centered by rosettes from which emerge a foliate element around which two snakes are intertwined. A bead chain hangs from the snakes’ mouths; they rest on an architectural entablature decorated with piasters, mille-raie motifs and beads.
This extraordinary pair of wall lights may be considered a perfect example of the esthetic experimentation carried out by several important Parisian artisans during the reign of King Louis XV, which culminated in a new ornamental and decorative style inspired by Greek and Roman antiquity. The new style, a reaction to the rocaille manner typical of the early years of Louis XV’s reign, developed as a result of the interest of influential Parisian collectors of the day, including Count de Caylus and Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully. Tired of the rocaille style, these collectors wanted to furnish their Paris mansions in a novel, commanding, and virile style that became the predominant style in France and throughout Europe for many decades. It was also the source of the Empire style that became popular in the final years of the 18th century and the early years of the following one.
This was the context surrounding the creation of the present pair of wall lights. Their remarkable design and the exceptional quality of their chasing and gilding suggest they were executed by a Parisian bronze caster active in the late 1760s or early 1770s. They appear to be one-of-a kind; no other similar or comparable pair is known, which suggests they were probably commissioned by one of the most important connoisseurs of the period. Their general design and some of their motifs may have been inspired by the work of the Parisian ornamentists and designers of the day. The entwined snakes may also be seen on sketches of decorative vases, for example those of Jean-Louis Prieur and Gilles-Paul Cauvet (see A. Forray-Carlier, S. Legrand-Rossi and B. Quette, De Bronze et d’Or, Bronzes dorés du musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, Les arts décoratifs, 2024, p. 111). The unusual design of the arms with Greek key motifs to which the leafy garlands are attached also may be seen in a sketch by artist Jean-Charles Delafosse, which is included in his “Nouvelle Iconologie Historique” published in Paris in 1768 (see H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, Tome I, Munich, 1986, p. 187, fig. 3.9.5).