Pair of Candlesticks

These enormous candlesticks--equal to the height of the average seventeenth-century man--probably once adorned the main altar of the church of San Francesco in Benavente, Spain. This town was the seat of the Pimentels, the counts of Benavente, one of Spain's most powerful and wealthy families, whose coats of arms decorate the base of each candlestick.

The choice of darkly patinated bronze, instead of the more traditional gold-colored brass, emphasizes the severe, simple shape of the candlesticks and reflects an austerity preferred by many Spanish patrons in the 1600s.