Baroque silver votive lamp of the 17th-18th century.

Baroque votive lamp 17th-18th century.
Embossed silver.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use.
Measurements: 135 x 55 x 55 cm. approx.

Baroque votive lamps are fundamental pieces in the history of art and liturgy because they represent the "eternal light" and the maximum splendor of the scenographic apparatus of the Church. Our specimen is made of embossed and chiseled silver on its entire surface, with floral and foliate motifs, both in the small flared lower body and in the large upper bowl. This is worked in the form of an inverted dome topped with a pinnacle, from which hangs a tassel. The main body of the lamp is joined to the upper support by means of chains and counterweights of openwork fleurons.

The votive lamps, also called Santísimo, have a long history and fulfilled a double function of worship and offering to a divinity in gratitude or fulfillment of a promise. Tradition dictates that these oil lamps, the work of silversmiths, goldsmiths and sometimes artisans of different disciplines, burn and illuminate in perpetuity the Blessed Sacrament or the venerated image in the chapels and altars of the temples to keep alive the devotion of the faithful. Endowed with ingenious technical solutions and decorated with refinement, they have embellished majestic Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque cathedrals. The use of votive offerings, deposited in sacred places for ritual reasons and to appease supernatural forces, dates back to the Neolithic period.