Single-Light Pricket Candlestick

This single-light candlestick is an exemplary piece of 18th-century folk sacred art, seamlessly combining a simple form with the bright, picturesque painting characteristic of the provincial traditions of the period. The compositional design features a distinct vertical architectonics traditional for objects of this type. The candlestick consists of a profiled three-lobed foot resting on small, turned ball supports, serving as a fundamental base. The shaft is constructed from an alternation of turned pear-shaped swellings and ring-shaped collars, lending a calm, even rhythm to the silhouette. The piece terminates in a small wax pan. The smooth, almost organic silhouette of the base, combined with the turned vertical elements, imparts a solemn character to the object.
Carved from wood, the candlestick is entirely covered in polychrome painting. This colouristic treatment plays an equally significant role to the plasticity of the form itself. The primary background tone is white, adorned with crisp, bright red and muted green bands applied across the collars, along the segments of the shaft, and around the edges of the base feet. In terms of artistic perception, the object beautifully marries its practical function with pronounced decorativeness. Its verticality symbolically directs the gaze upwards, while the organic nature of the outlines introduces a motif of living nature into the geometry of the turned volumes. The white background, combined with the red and green accent details, forms a restrained colouristic system. Unlike sophisticated examples of professional ecclesiastical metalwork or carving, this candlestick speaks the language of naive, spontaneous folk art. The simplified proportions, generalised shapes, and free, improvised style of painting reveal the hand of a local craftsman guided by their own innate sense of harmony and colour.

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery