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The Romantic Movement
The Romantic movement, in addition to its influence across all artistic fields, promoted the emergence of a particular genre: the animal sculpture.
Animals fascinate the romantics; they represent the wildlife, the world of Nature, perfect mix between violence and sensibility. The animal sculptors are simply following a path already opened by the painters, first by the English, then by the Romantics of the 1820s in particular Gericault and Horace Vernet.
The work of Antoine Louis Barye is at the peak of the genre, it brings in its wake many sculptors such as Alfred Barye, his son, Pierre-Jules Mene and his son in law, Auguste Cain, the sculptor of the lions and tigers, which made the representation of these beasts his specialty.
The production of Antoine-Louis Barye is trusted by the public and rose prodigiously. Critics are pleased to recognize in his works the art of drawing portraits of real animals, of seizing their feelings or their ferocity. 
In spite of the reluctance of the academic society which considers the animal unworthy of the great art, the critics and the public speak very highly of this production, which clearly influenced the decorative arts.
Antoine-Louis Barye contributes greatly to the creation of silversmith’s pieces in the animal style. Indeed, Fourier, whom he was apprenticed at the age of fourteen, works for goldsmiths; he provides them with matrices to create “repoussé”. In this workshop, Barye is the witness of the realization of gold snuff boxes, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to the goldsmith Martin Guillaume Biennais for his distinguished guests.
In 1820, Antoine Louis Barye is employed at the goldsmith, Jacques Henri Fauconnier, student of Odiot, who was at the peak of his success while enjoying the patronage of the Duke of Angouleme and the Duchess of Berry. According to his training and his client’s order, Antoine-Louis Barye has created many pieces of silver, such as inkwells, lining fireplaces and chandeliers.
Thus, the pair of gilt bronze candelabra five lights surrounding a stork, we are proposing is similar to the pair of candelabra with three or four sconces topped by a stork or an owl, models created by Antoine Louis Barye.
The animal sculptors following the example of Antoine-Louis Barye also produced many decorative objects. Many artworks appeared at that time, using the animal directory. Stork, turtle, lizards or frogs appear on the base or on the stems of the candelabra. Each of these animal representations reflects, in its way, the romantic impulse that runs throughout Europe in the Nineteen Century.
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