CANDELABRUM

(Lat. candela, a lamp or candle.) A stand or support on which the ancients placed a lamp. Candelabra varied in form, and were highly decorated with the stems and leaves of plants, parts of animals, flowers, and the like. There was no article of ancient furniture in which more taste and elegance were displayed than in the designs of candelabra. The etymology of the word would seem to a imilate the candelabrum to our candlestick; it is, however, quite certain that the word candela was nothing more than a lamp, and that the candelabrum was but a support more or le heavy in construction upon which the lamp was placed, or whose top was hollowed out for the reception of oil or some other combustible. The great variety observable in ancient candelabra was not so dependent on the caprice of the artist, as on the different uses to which they were first applied. Before the employment of oil the mode of illuminating an apartment was by means of dry wood burnt on braziers (basins for holding fuel) supported by tripods. The Greeks, always delighting to preserve some reminiscence of an ancient usage, thence adhered to the triangular form in this article of furniture, and their example was imitated by the Romans. Generally speaking, there are two species of candelabra: those which ending upwards in the form of a brazier, so nearly approach the form of a portable altar as to be almost confounded with it. This species must be cla ed with the tripod, ami there seems ground for believing that it was used only In temples or in small chapels. Of this sort was that carried off by Verres; and Cicero informs us that in Sicily every house was supplied with one in silver. Of this species also are those most frequently sculptured in friezes, usually accompanied by genii and instruments of sacrifice. The other species of candelabra, whose acce aries and ornaments are of the same character as in those first described, are much higher, and of marble. Of this kind Rome furnishes an abundance of examples; but, as Winkelman observes,not one has been found in bronze. The marble candelabra exhibit as much variety in the forms of the vase or brazier, which it is their principal end to support, as in the body and base of the support itself. Sometimes they are capricious to exce , the foliage, contrivance,and design being such as to display more skill than propriety of taste. Others, however, there are which are exquisite models of form, taste, ornament, and execution. The museum at the Vatican contains po ibly the finest collection in Europe of this species. There is one to be seen there upwards of seven feet high, resting on griffins' or lions' paws. The general form of its shaft is that of a baluster, which supports a vase shaped basin; it is highly decorated with foliage and ba i-rilievi of bacchantes. The British museum presents some specimens; beautiful, but not of the first cla . For full information on this species, the reader should turn to the splendid works of Piranesi. Lachau e thinks that marble candelabra were used in temples more for the purpose of adding splendour to the service than of lighting it; but it seems probable that many with which we are acquainted, such as those that were found in the baths of Titus, where numbers of the apartments did not receive the light of day, actually held artificial light. The most curious specimens of candelabra,as respects form, use, and workmanship, are those excavated at Herculaneum and Pompeii. These are all of bronze; and that they were employed for domestic purposes is proved from the representation, on an Etruscan vase, of one which serves to give light to the guests a embled round a banquet table. They are slender in their proportions,and perfectly portable, rarely exceeding five feet in height. It is to be observed, that none of the candelabra hitherto found exhibit any appearance of a socket or of a spike could at be top,drawn.from which an inference of the use of candles [s. 203]