Candelabra (one of a pair)

Applied Arts of Europe

c. 1794–1819

Martin-Guillaume Biennais (French, 1764–1843)
Probably designed after Charles Percier (French, 1764–1838) and
Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (French, 1762–1853)
Paris, France

This object for the dining table is part of a vast service made for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline on the occasion of her marriage to the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, Sixth Prince of Sulmona.

In the years after the French Revolution, architects and designers adopted the visual language of ancient Greece and Rome to express the new imperial order. Napoleon, hoping to promote Paris’s luxury trades, commissioned several silver dinner services as gifts to be sent abroad. The slender outlines and smooth surfaces of the objects in the Borghese service contrast with the rich decoration.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Applied Arts of Europe

Artist: Martin-Guillaume Biennais
Title: Candelabra (one of a pair)
Place: Paris (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1794–1819
Medium: Gilt silver and gilt bronze
Inscriptions: MARKS: “[lozenge with seated monkey and two pellets above B, maker’s mark] / [head of Apollo in oval shield with P, unofficial Paris assay mark 1794-97],” below band of flowerheads on shaft (both marks partially defaced) and on left side of left branch; “[head of Apollo with 1 in place of P, unofficial Paris assay mark 1794-97],” below candlesocket on left side of right branch and on rear branch; “[cock with 1 in right corner in horizontal octagonal shield, Paris assay mark 1809-19] / [helmeted dexter head of Minerva in round punch, Paris excise mark 1809-19],” below bobobeches on outer surface of right candlesocket, rear candlesocket (assay mark partially defaced), and left candlesocket (both marks partially defaced) INSCRIPTIONS: “[Borghese armorials surmounted with Napoleonic Crown],” embossed on shaft
Dimensions: H.: 54.6 cm (21 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Charles V. Hickox
Reference Number: 1966.98.1a-d
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/25100/manifest.json

Catalogue des objets d’art et d’ameublement qui garnissent le grand appartement au premier étage du palais du Prince Borghese à Rome (Rome: Imprimerie Editrice Romana, 1892), pp. 128-30, lot 847, no. 24 (p. 129), pl. XI (ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Summer Loan Exhibitions,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 18, no. 6 (September 1924): mentioned p. 79.
“McCormick Art to be sold in January at American-Anderson Galleries,” The Art News, vol. XXXII, no. 10 (9 December 1933): p. 127.
“Historic Silver and Fine Tapestries Feature McCormick Sale,” The Art Digest, vol. VIII, no. 6 (15 December 1933): p. 15.
“McCormick Art Collection Now on Exhibition,” The Art News, vo. XXXII, no. 12 (23 December 1933): p. 16.
Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick (New York: American Art Association, 1934): p. 108, lots 703-04.
“Exhibitions and Sales,” Antiques, vol. XXV, no. 1 (January 1934): pp. 25-26.
“McCormick Auction,” The Art News, vol. XXXII, no. 15 (13 January 1934): pp. 3, 14.
“Exhibitions and Sales,” Antiques, vol. XXV, no. 2 (February 1934): pp. 69-71.
“New York Sales,” The Connoisseur, vol. 93, no. 390 (February 1934): pp. 135-36.
“American Art Sales,” Apollo, vol. XIX, no. 3 (March 1934): p. 174.
John Maxon, “Report of the Associate Director,” The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1965-1966, p. 34, p. 11 (ill.).
Allen Wardwell, “Continental Decorative Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Antiques, vol. XCII, no. 4 (October 1967): p. 512-513 (ill.).
Eleanor Page, “A Princely Table Service,” Chicago Tribune (20 April 1970): p. B14.
John W. Keefe, et al., Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1976), pp. 156, 162-171, cat. 260, 267 (Ill.).
Celia Hilliard, “’Higher Things’: Remembering the Early Antiquarians,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol. 28, no. 2 Gift Beyond Measure: The Antiquarian Society and European Decorative Arts, (2002): mentioned p. 16.

Rome, Palais Borghese, Apartment du Prince Borghese, March 24 – March 26, 1892.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Summer Loan Exhibition, July 1 – October 1, 1924.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Paulina Borghese Silver, October 1924 – November, 1932.
New York, Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick, December 28, 1933 – January 6, 1934.
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, January 24 – March 28, 1976.
Montreal, Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Napoleon: Art and Court Life in the Imperial Palace, February 3 – May 11, 2018.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Napoleon: Power and Splendor, June 6 – September 3, 2018.
Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Napoleon: Power and Splendor, October 26, 2018 – March 10, 2019.

Probably commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte I, between 1809 and 1819 as a gift to Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese (per Paris Assay marks for 1809-1819, engraved and embossed Napoleonic Crowns surmounting the Borghese Crests, and inscriptions “orfevre de Lrs. Mtes. Imperialism et Royales a Paris” on pieces of the service); private collection of Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese; thence by descent, Borghese Palace, Rome; sold their sale Rome, Apartment du Prince Borghese, 1892 (Lot 847, copy of catalog in curatorial file, see publication history for exact lot); possibly with Antonio Licata, Naples, 1892. With Ercole Canessa, dealer, Naples, Paris, or New York, by 1892; sold to Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Chicago, before 1924; sold her sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick, 1934 (lots 628-774, copy of catalog in curatorial file, see publication history for exact lot); collection of Charles V. and Catherine Barker Spaulding Hickox, New York, NY, until 1966; given to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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