Nubian Light-bearers

in carved, molded, gilded, silvered and polychrome wood depicting two Nubians standing and hanging supporting nine light arms forming scrolls with cut and openwork bobèches.
They rest on a cairn supported by a curved base with molded top and plinth, with panels forming "faux marble" painted reserves and canted corners adorned with scrolled consoles covered with a stylized leaf.
Work in the Venetian Baroque taste of the 18th century.
Height. 207 and 211 cm (to baluster) / diam. 49 cm / overall width 61.5 and 57 cm.
(five fingers reattached, two to be reattached / minor accidents and missing parts / two or three slight differences in details / good general condition despite everything)

(send additional photos for any negotiation / delivery at our charge in mainland France)

Linked to the commercial and financial power of the City of the Doges, the architecture and decorative arts that developed in Venice over the centuries gave rise to a whole range of artistic creations, each as extraordinary as the next, in both the major arts and the ornamental repertoire.
Andréa Brustolon (Belluno, July 20, 1662 - October 25, 1732) is probably the inventor of Nubian (or Moorish) figures in Venetian, and indeed European, decorative arts.
This artist, considered one of the virtuosos of Sculpture on wood, responded to prestigious commissions from Venetian families, as evidenced by the works of the "fornitura Venier", some 40 pieces, produced from around 1690 to 1700, some of which feature Nubians supporting various decorative elements.
His style, taken up and imitated throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, influences an iconographic type in which the figures are dedicated to various functions: vase holders, conch holders, lantern holders, hoop holders... as well as light holders. Although made in the 1960s, this pair of light holders is a perfect example of the creations that proliferated from the 1700s onwards in the city of the Doges and in European interiors.
Besides the stylistic bias, the dynamic, light attitude and postures of these two sculptures reinforce their eminently decorative character, avoiding the monotony of a static position.
Haired in turbans, adorned with ear pendants, they are wearing richly embellished brocade jackets, button-downs, belts and stylized breeches. Their shoes are supple ankle boots.
The work that served as a model for these servants tells us about the high social rank of the Venetian family that owned it (or them), as does the generously garnished fruit bowl, a symbol of wealth and abundance.
Notwithstanding the symbolic character, the decorative aspect of the subjects takes precedence.
They are equally at home in a contemporary setting where antique works have been mixed together, or in an interior where hangings, Baroque furniture and genre paintings have been brought together to recreate the taste and ambience of the finest residences, castles, apartments...