583 - Pair of Three-Light Brass Altar Candlesticks with IHS Christogram

Pair of Three-Light Brass Altar Candlesticks with IHS Christogram Two candlesticks of brass, each with three lights. Above a stepped, pyramidal foot with punched rectangular fields rises a shaft with a palmette knop, above it an arched openwork top with the christogram IHS in raised letters. From the arch grow two curved arms with hexagonal drip pans and cylindrical sockets; in the centre rises a bar cross with widened ends carrying the third, raised socket. The surfaces partly punched and engraved. Condition commensurate with age with patina, the threads corroded. The candlesticks each H. 37 cm. The christogram IHS derives from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus and became the most widespread name symbol of Christ from the Middle Ages onwards; in modern times the letters were additionally interpreted as Iesus Hominum Salvator, Jesus, Saviour of Mankind. From the 15th century Bernardine and Jesuit preachers carried it as an emblem into church furnishings. Between Historicism and Art Nouveau a separate branch of ecclesiastical applied art developed which transferred the traditional formal language into flat, ornamentally reduced designs and preferred brass as a comparatively affordable material. Candle holders of this kind stood in pairs on the altar or on a domestic altar and are today equally used as decorative candlesticks.