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A pair of mid 18th century South German rococo polychrome girandoles, each carved with high relief scrolls forming a pierced canopy at the top. The whole is surmounted by a polychrome foliate scroll and further enriched with entwining branches, leaves, flowers and buds.
This pair of South German girandoles with their rich expressive rococo carving are distinctive of a group of pieces associated with the oeuvre of a group of carvers, designers and gilders working in the 1760's in and around Munich, and in particular at the Schloss Nymphenburg. Throughout the period white ground polychrome furniture and decorations found favour. The Emperor Maximillian III was Prince-elector and Duke of Bavaria from 1745-1777, and it is under his guidance and artistic philosophy that this taste found fruition. He founded the Nymphenburg porcelian factory, he was the patron of Francois de Cuvillies, the father of the rococo style, and he had a minor influence over Mozart. But it is the porcelain which is the prime mover here. The white porcelain which, harked back to Chinese blanc de chine, stylistically washed over into all forms of decorative arts and with the illustrated girandoles we can clearly see the echoes of the Emperor's first passion.
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