Sconce or Girandole

The sconce, or wall light or girandole, is one of a pair made by James Pascall of Covent Garden for the seventh Viscount Irwin's Picture Gallery at Temple Newsam in 1746. It was the most ambitious item of a large suite consisting of 20 chairs, four sofas, a daybed, two small tables, two large tables and eight candlestands. Almost the whole suite remains in its original setting, making the Gallery the most complete interior of its date anywhere in the world.

These magnificently carved furnishings are in effect pieces of sculpture. They continue the dominant theme of metamorphosis in the mythological forest which is everywhere apparent in this room. Here the Prince Actaeon, having been caught watching the Goddess Diana bathing, has been transformed into a stag to be mauled to death by his own hounds. Nearby, on the candlestands, the nymph Syrinx is being metamorphosed into a tree in order to escape the lecherous clutches of Pan.

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