Pair of wall-lights , second third of the 18th century

Large sconces in finely chased bronze, the shaft surmounted by a covered pot is adorned with a mascaron of a smiling faun or satyr, a necklace of vine leaves around his neck. They have two light arms decorated with foliage, the base adorned with a floral spray, and the wicks enriched with a string of pearls.

While the bronze technique used for our sconces is foreign, probably Baltic, the ornamentation appears to be French-inspired.

The ornamental motif of the satyr is originally borrowed from Antiquity and Greek and Roman mythology. The presence of vine leaves and bunches of grapes in a collar around the face of the figure on the shaft is a reminder of the satyr's connection with the cult of Dionysus or Bacchus, gods of wine, drunkenness and pleasure.

The use of such figures in the decorative arts and architecture developed particularly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with this taste for Antiquity in ornamentation.

Ornamentalists such as Jean Bérain and Paul Farinaste developed this decorative language in collections of models for use by architects and craftsmen. As a result, the faun was used as a decorative element, often as a bracket, and particularly here as a smiling mascaron.