Wild Man Chandelier (Lustermännchen)

Carved in the form of a wild man, this Lüstermännchen (literally, little chandelier man) would have originally had metal fixtures inserted into the antlers extending from the figure’s back. Popular in Germany and surrounding alpine regions, antler chandeliers hung inside civic spaces such as town and guild halls, in castles and stately homes, and even in ecclesiastical settings. Many were designed and made by some of the most important German artists and workshops of the 16th century, including Albrecht Dürer and Tilman Riemenschneider.

An invention of the medieval imagination, wild men and women were neither fully human nor animal and were covered in shaggy hair except for their face, hands, and feet. Living in remote forests, they were ruled by their animalistic urges, and lacked the ability to speak, form rational thoughts, or follow religion. Wild men were the embodiment of chaos and heresy—the antithesis of the paragon of the civilized, Christian man. The mythical creature was renowned especially for his brutish, supernatural strength, but the chandelier’s wild man holds a coat-of-arms, his extraordinary strength subdued perhaps as a symbol of man’s ability to tame and control creatures of the wilderness.