Pair of staircase lamps

Paolo di Giovanni Sogliani
silver
16th century
 

Tradition staircase lamps were usually oil wick lamps with two beaks (used for the wick’s discharge) but lit on only one side where the light was required and commonly inserted in niches along the walls.  These vertically-assembled versions bear the stamp of the Florentine goldsmith Paolo di Giovanni Sogliani who was active from 1480 to 1520.

Producing vertical lamps seems to have been the hallmark of this innovative Tuscan goldsmith who abandoned the gothic themes favoured by his contemporaries. This pair of staircase lamps express a sort of vertical tension playing between the three elements which recall an oil wick lamp, the cuplike recipient and the base. It’s interesting that the silver worker probably used a woodwork model to form a mould which was then filled.