The National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art
Inv. No. Tt-6574
Address: V. Putvinskio str. 55, Kaunas
Time of origin: 1770–1799
Place of origin: Russia
Material, Technique: bronze, copper: casting, cizeling, repoussé; gilding; glass, crystal: casting, polishing
Dimensions: height – 80 cm, diameter – 75 cm
The frame-type chandelier with a vase of pink glass in the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art is one of the most valuable ware in Lithuania representing Russian light fixtures of the 18th century designed to use candles for light.
Nine arms of the chandelier are placed into a disk with a glass vase of subtle pink colour above it. The vase is made of opaque glass and has a decorative function. Three lyre-form rods support the crown of arms attached with chains to a glass rosette at the top of the chandelier. Three polished spires with tendrils and pendants decorate the frame. Tendrils at the top of the vase, strands of gradually increasing and decreasing faceted beads between arms and jasmine, and rosettes of anemone-shaped cast glass provide playfulness for the ware.
The chandelier was made in Russia in the fourth quarter of the 18th century is the only known survived light fixture of such structure in Lithuania. The Ostankino Palace built in Moscow in the late 18th century preserves chandelier of a similar structure. The ware is exceptional for its lightness and playfulness, the features typical to chandeliers produced in Russia in the 18th century.
Literature and sources:- Valtaitė-Gagač Alantė, XVII a.–XX a. 4 dešimtmečio sietynų paveldas Lietuvoje: Daktaro disertacija, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademija, 2015, p. 233.
- Сoлoвьев K. А., Русская осветительнная арматура ХVIII–XIX вв., Mосква: Архитектура и градостроительство, 1950, il. 29–33.