557 - Baroque altar candlestick, carved and painted wood, stem with three putto heads, 18th century

Baroque altar candlestick, carved and painted wood, stem with three putto heads, 18th century Wood, carved and painted, single-light candlestick, also altar candlestick, Baroque, 18th century, trefoil-shaped foot with volutes, on it a baluster-shaped stem, above it a spherical form with three sculpturally worked putto heads, an adjoining short stem carries the platform with four holes for the candle, acanthus leaf decoration, painted surface with remains of gilding, condition commensurate with age, painted surface extensively rubbed and flaked, pricket for fixing the candle missing, wax residue, H. 78 cm A comparable wooden candlestick of the 18th century in the collection of a Westphalian museum is assigned to the sacred sphere; there the candle was placed on an iron pricket in the pan. Italian Baroque altar candlesticks are also made of carved, painted and gilt wood with a three-legged foot and baluster-shaped stem. The putto, plural putti, is in the visual arts the naked, sometimes winged figure of a boy; the Early Renaissance formed it from the Gothic child angels and the love gods of antiquity.