Five-light candelabrum (one of a pair) 1780 - 1790

This bronze and gilt five-light candelabrum was made by Claude Michel, called Clodion. Notice how the exuberant mythological figure of a satyr holds aloft the candelabra’s lights. Clodion made this object in France, a couple of decades before the French Revolution. His playful, sensual style was popular with the French aristocracy. The image of the satyr, a creature associated with revelry, is a reminder of the pleasures of courtly life under the ancien régime. However, the luxury item also speaks to the deep social inequalities of pre-revolutionary France. The candelabrum shows that there were entire sectors of the economy devoted to producing luxury goods for an elite, while many ordinary people lived in poverty. In this context, we might ask: did Clodion’s art serve to uphold or to critique the social order? Social historians consult sources like tax records, estate inventories, and political pamphlets in order to reconstruct the world in which such objects were made and used.