Candleholder with Ivy Leaves

Roman art

This candleholder is composed of various fragments, the only ancient part being the drum decorated with concave gadrooning and the cornice above it. Between 1828 and 1831, the sculptor Antonio D’Este restored the piece, which was then moved to Room VI. In 1833, it was moved to Room I, then the Portico in 1854 and, finally, the Salone, its current location, in 1980.

Although heavily restored, the ancient fragment seems datable to between the first and second centuries CE.

Object details

Commentary

This candleholder is depicted in an eighteenth-century drawing by Percier and Fontaine in the garden of the Villa Borghese, in front of the Temple of Asclepius. The sculpture has a drum decorated with acanthus spirals that was used in the nineteenth century to make a similar candleholder (inv. I), which is still on view in the Salone today (Percier, Fontaine 1809, p. 18, pl. XX). When the two sculptures were put assembled in the nineteenth century, it was decided to use a few ancient pieces in each, possibly from a single original monument. According to the documentation, the sculptor Antonio D’Este was hired to restore the candleholder in 1828. He cleaned and integrated the sculpture, completing the work (the cost of which was initially estimated at ‘60 scudi’ but totalled 360 scudi in the end) in 1831 (Quinta Nota degli Oggetti antichi provenienti dalla Villa Borghese, no. 12: busta 8098, p. 128, no. 494; busta 7458, no. 11; busta 8099, p. 11, no. 107; Moreno, Sforzini 1987, pp. 363–365, 368). In the Inventario of 1832, the sculpture is listed at number 292 and reported as on display in the Sala di Apollo, now Room VI (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Archivio Borghese b. 458). Moved to Room I the following year (Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese, 1833, C., p. 44, no. 48), Nibby reported that it was again in Room VI in 1841 (p. 921, no. 1). In the Indicazione of 1854, the candleholder is reported in the Portico (p. 7, no. 30) and, finally, in the Salone, its current location, where it was mentioned for the first time in 1980 by Moreno (p. 10).

The candleholder is composed of a number of fragments, the only ancient part being the drum with fluting and the cornice carved from the same block. The rest of the composition, including the shaft decorated with ivy berries and leaves and flame-tipped scales, the chalice of upside-down acanthus leaves below it, the circular plinth and the meander cornice and the lower base with the lion paws, are all modern.

The ancient fragment is not substantial enough to allow the accurate reconstruction of the original sculpture, which can be indicatively dated to between the first and second centuries CE.

Giulia Ciccarello