Artwork of the Week
Following suit (pun intended) from my last post - I am providing you a great post-read soundtrack. Enjoy.
This week's featured artwork is...
*drumroll*
This is my favorite view of the new Neoclassical chandelier at the Toledo Museum of Art. I walk under it every day and looking up to see this is stunning, to say the least. The Spiral Chandelier is a 200-year-old beauty made for the summer palace of Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother and King of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813. Oh the things this chandelier has seen!
The gorgeous chandelier was created by the German firm Werner & Mieth in 1810-1811, and is made of cast, chased and fire-gilded bronze armature hung with cut and polished glass pendants. It measures roughly five-and-a-half feet tall by three-feet wide as it now lights up Gallery 31 at the Museum. They had been searching for the perfect Neoclassical fixture to illuminate the gallery that houses such works as The Oath of the Horatii.
The Spiral Chandelier and The Oath of the Horatii combo is perfect! The chandelier's intricate, logarithmic design is quintessentially Neoclassical and Jacques-Louis David's 1786 painting is often considered the face of Neoclassical painting. Neoclassicism is the period of the arts (visual works, decorative arts, music, theater, etc.) that drew from the antiquated ideals of Greece and Rome, going back to the "classics". This period aligned with the 18th century Enlightenment, which explains the influence of science and logical reasoning in both the chandelier and the very thought-out painting. David's famous painting, which is a replica of the Louvre's from 1784 (still painted by David and a student), is much different than the competing Romantic or Rococo (see Fragonard's post here) paintings of the same time. Though the ornate Spiral Chandelier seems like it could lean both ways - it is just so opulent!
This post cannot do the Chandelier justice - it is something you just have to see in person! Hey, the Museum is totally worth the trip!
You can read more about the Museum's newest acquisition on the TMA website here.
