Design of a Candlestick with Winged Figures at Base Surrounding Scenic Medallion. Artist: Perino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi) (Italian, Florence 1501-1547 Rome). Date: 1501-47.Although he received commissions for numerous monumentalfresco cycles throughout his thirty-year career, it was as adesigner of small-scale decorative objects that Perino's artisticimagination took flight. This lavish design for a bronzecandlestick brimming with ornament is a veritableadvertisement for his prodigious powers of invention. In aseamless synthesis of the sacred and profane that epitomizesthe cultural ethos of Renaissance Rome, classicizingswags, acanthus leaves, and grotteschi frame a medallion--presumably an engraved rock crystal--illustrating anepisode of the Passion. The Christian imagery--both thenarrative scene and the saint standing in a niche at thetop--indicates that the candlestick was intended for an altarrather than a secular domestic context. Nothing about thepatron or the