Candlestick with the figure of Bacchus

The candlestick was the perfect item of furniture for decorating
Baroque palaces, well representing the new requirements of the local nobility
and bourgeoisie for ostentation, luxury and splendour. This candlestick represents a figure in
gilded wood with the features of a young Bacchus caught in the act of parading
upon a rock. His
left hand is raised to grasp a tangle of vine leaves that acts as a support for
the candelabra. The right arm, instead, remains half-hidden by floating drapery
and falls limply by his side. This
way of capturing the human figure in perpetual movement recalls, even in its
reinterpretation, a sculpture of Bacchus by Jacopo Sansovino. The candlestick is thought to have been
made shortly after 1667, probably commissioned by Giovan Antonio Durazzo for
his villa in Albisola. Typical
of this period was the connection between plasterers and carvers working in
Baroque Genoa, and painters, thus creating continuity between painted
decoration, stucco and wooden carvings, following the footsteps of Guarino
Guarini, well-known exponent of Piedmontese Baroque. One of the best examples of this technique is found on the
ceiling of Palazzo Brignole Sale (now Palazzo Rosso) in Genoa.