Chandelier

[1][2] Chandeliers are often ornate, and they were originally designed to hold candles, but now incandescent light bulbs are commonly used,[3] as well as fluorescent lamps and LEDs.

Chandeliers produced nowadays can assume a wide variety of styles that span modernized and traditional designs or a combination of both.

Small chandeliers can be installed in smaller spaces such as bedrooms or small living spaces, while large chandeliers are typically installed in the grand rooms of buildings such as halls and lobbies, or in religious buildings such as churches, synagogues or mosques.

Hanging lighting devices, some described as chandeliers, were known since ancient times, and circular ceramic lamps with multiple points for wicks or candles were used in the Roman period.

[14] In the Byzantine period, flat circular metallic structures suspended with chains that can hold oil lamps known as polycandela (singular polycandelon) were commonly used throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

[15][16] First developed in late antiquity, polycandela were used in churches and synagogues, and took the shape of a bronze or iron frame holding a varying number of globular or conical glass beakers provided with a wick and filled with oil.

In Spain which had significant Moorish influence, hanging farol lanterns made of pierced brass and bronze as well as glass were produced.

They have been pierced too by the weapon of the skillful workman, in order that they may receive shafts of fire-wrought glass and hold light on high for men at night.

[14] The Venerable Bede mentioned that it was customary to have two hanging lighting devices called phari in a major English church, one in the nave and one in the choir, which may be a large bronze hoop with lamps hung over the figure of a cross.

[24] The larger Romanesque or Gothic-style circular wheel chandeliers were also recorded in Germany, France, and the Netherlands in the 11th and 12th century.

A hammered iron corona with floral decorated was recorded in the St Paul's Cathedral in London in the 13th century.

Chandeliers with many branches radiating out from a central stem, sometimes in tiers, were made by the 15th century, and these may be adorned with statuettes and foliated decorations.

[32] Many different metallic materials have been used to make chandeliers, including iron, pewter, bronze, or more prestigiously silver and even gold.

Brass, however, has the warm appearance of gold while being considerably cheaper, and also easy to work with, it therefore became a popular choice for making chandeliers.

[35] These Dutch and Flemish chandeliers may be decorated with stylized floral embellishments as well as Gothic symbols and emblems and religious figures.

[42] By the early 18th century, ornate cast ormolu forms with long, curved arms and many candles were in the homes of many in the growing merchant class.

Chandeliers began to be decorated with carved rock crystal (quartz) of Italian origin in the 16th century, a highly expensive material.

[4] These English chandeliers were made largely of glass, with the metal parts limited to the central stem and receiver plates and bowls.

Chandeliers made in this style also drew heavily on the aesthetic of ancient Greece and Rome, incorporating clean lines, classical proportions and mythological creatures.

[54] The Bohemian style was largely successful across Europe and its biggest draw was the chance to obtain spectacular light refraction due to the facets and bevels of crystal prisms.

The Venetians created a form of soda–lime glass by adding manganese dioxide that is clear like crystal, which they called cristallo.

Their shape was inspired by an original architectural concept: the space on the inside is left almost empty, since decorations are spread all around the central support, distanced from it by the length of the arms.

Russian and Scandinavian chandeliers are similar in designs, with a metal frame that is lighter and more decorative, gilded or finished with brass, and hung with small slender glass drops.

Chandelier makers, in order to avoid paying the tax, reused broken glass pieces cut into crystal icicles and strung together, and hung from circular frames in the form of tent or canopy above a hoop, with a bag below and/or tiered sheets that resembled waterfalls.

[52] The largest English-made chandelier in the world (by Hancock Rixon & Dunt and probably F. & C. Osler) is in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, and it has 750 lamps and weighs 4.5 tons.

[62] While popular, gas lighting was considered too bright and harsh on the eyes, and lacking the pleasing quality of candlelight.

Glass chandeliers requires electrical wiring, large areas of metals and light bulbs, but the results were often not aesthetically pleasing.

A vast array of lighting choices became available, and chandeliers often did not fit the aesthetics of modern architecture and interior design.

The chandelier in the prayer hall in the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman was the biggest when it was installed in 2001.

[76] In Egypt, the largest and heaviest chandelier in the world, weighing 24,300 kg (53,572 lb) with a diameter of 22 m (72.2 ft) in four levels made by Asfour Crystal, was installed in the Grand Mosque of the Islamic Cultural Center in Cairo.