Pair of candlesticks "Return to Egypt", 19th century. Bronze. Measurements: 48 x 29 x 3 cm. Napoleon's campaign in Egypt in 1798 was the starting point of the Egyptomania that would dominate French art at the beginning of the 19th century. The future emperor and his troops were able to see first hand the great temples, monumental sculptures and pyramids, but the main architects of the dissemination of these images were the artists who accompanied the troops, and who devoted themselves to making sketches and watercolors of the various landscapes. When these works arrived in France, they were engraved and used as the basis for large oil paintings. Thanks to these images, a new iconographic repertoire arrived in Europe, based on ancient Egyptian art but recreated with freedom and fantasy. This pair of candelabra is a clear example of this taste for the Egyptian, which will develop not only in the early nineteenth century but will be taken up again with force at the end of the century, within the context of historicism. The body of the candelabra is made up of winged sphinxes with pharaoh's headdress supporting the body with four arms.