Two Torchères

Etching and engraving with designs for two torchères, created by Juan Dolivar after designs by Jean I Berain. Entrusted with drawings for costumes, stage sets, and royal ceremonies at the 'Academie Royale de la Musique' since 1680, Berain's ingenious creations took acanthus and laurel leaves, palmettes and grotesques, mixing them with dancers, acrobats, monkeys and satyrs, to create his own, imaginative, theatrical world. His designs were multiplied and disseminated by means of engravings, his design motifs and manner objects becoming highly influential in the closing years of the seventeenth century.

On the left part of the sheet stands the first torchère in this print, with acanthus and laurel leaves, grotesques, and allegorical figures. The base is made up of large scrolls on which the candelabra stands, framed by scrolling acanthus leaves. In the center, a shell motif flanked above by a small ornamental vase holding a grotesque, whose hair is made up of laurel leaves that scroll to frame the upper part of the base. Upon it, and making up the shaft of the torchere, stands a vase with putti and laurel leaves, flanked above by a trunk covered with laurel leaves. Standing to the sides of the vase below are two allegorical figures, one of them dressed with draping, classical clothes, and the other Minerva, with their arms enclosing the trunk, and their hands held together. Above them, and attached to the trunk of laurel leaves, is a military trophy made up of a classical armor, spade and shield behind it, and a helmet, flanked above by scrolling feathers. A putto, half-dressed with draping fabric, holding a thin wreath of laurel leaves, is above the trophy, holding onto the scrolling leaves that make up the upper part of the shaft, and which hold the sconce, which consists of a roundel made up of small banners with hanging tassels.

On the right part of the sheet is the second torchère, with two legs (possibly four in the manufactured design) holding the base, which is flanked by two C-curved scrolling motifs, each holding a small ornamental vase with feathers, and with a winged grotesque standing on a scrolling motif, with a garland of laurel leaves hanging from it, in the center. Upon the base stand two winged sphinges with female chests and long, braided hair, around a thin vase, and holding a box with a scrolling frame with a grotesque, flanked above by a shaft with interlacing strapwork, S- and C-curves, and a small helmet with feathers, framed by garlands of laurel leaves, upon which stands a small ornamental vase that makes up the capital of the torchère, and which opens up, with scrolling motifs, to form a round sconce.