A Griffin Sees It All

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Announcer: This is a Getty podcast.

[Theme music begins]

Host: Do you know someone who lights up every room they’re in? What about some-thing? Welcome to If Objects Could Talk, the podcast where art and artifacts come alive to tell their side of the story. Today, we hear from something that knows a thing or two about lighting up the room, because they live on a chandelier. [chimes ring]

[Classical music begins]

Made in France around 1819, this chandelier looks like an elaborate hot air balloon, which was actually a new technology at this time. A big blue orb, slightly larger than a beach ball and painted with stars, sits at the center of the chandelier. Below that is a glass bowl, which looks sort of like the basket of a hot air balloon. But instead of holding passengers, it was designed to hold real, live goldfish. [water splashes] Imagine how it would feel to be a fish swimming in the sky. [water dripping]

But our guest today isn’t a fish. She’s one of six griffins that sit around the center of the blue sphere. A griffin is a mythical creature with the body, tail, and hind legs of a lion, combined with the head, wings, and talons of an eagle. [wings fly] Talk about containing multitudes. [child says “Wow!”] Griffins symbolize strength and guardianship, and they are often depicted protecting treasures. So it makes sense that our griffin guards a spectacular gold-covered chandelier, and she has a lot to say about all she’s seen on the job and all she’s helped others to see.

Griffin: [feminine voice with French accent speaks] Ah, and then there she was, a little girl hiding in the shadows of a grand party. Oh, now we are recording? Huh, it’s okay you didn’t get that. We’ll revisit it later. [laughs] Oh, in fact, I have enough exciting memories I can share to keep everyone more than entertained long into the night. [bell chimes]

Now, you might think a griffin perched on a chandelier in the middle of a room would be used to being the center of attention, but I’m more accustomed to watching than being watched. Perhaps it is because my entire chandelier is so striking, I barely stand out.

[Classical music plays]

Monsieur Galle created me in his workshop in Paris around the year 1819. He designed this elaborate chandelier himself, and he tucked me up here around the middle, facing outward with my wings half spread. I am made of gilded bronze [metal tap] which means bronze covered in gold in order to be even more dazzling [twinkling sound] and, in the case of a chandelier, in order to reflect and amplify the light, too.

I am one of six griffins that encircles the middle. Each of us holds a single candle on our head. We are connected to a gilded bronze ring around the center of a blue globe strewn with stars. The 12 signs of the zodiac—Aries, Taurus, Gemini—all of them decorate the ring. Between us griffins are arms that hold candles—12 more candles in all. That brings us to, un, deux, trois... Ah, 18 candles total. There are also gilded rooster heads [rooster crows], leaf designs [shuffling], and eagles [eagle cry]. Strings of glass crystals connect the candle arms to each other. [glass chimes] And below all of this sits a glass bowl, which during special occasions would be filled with water so goldfish would swim. [fish swims and plops] Yes, real fish! My creator, Monsieur Galle, said their continuous movement will give agreeable recreation to the eye. [crowd cheers] He was right. A great excuse to start a conversation with anyone standing next to you, eh? “Do you see the fish swimming in that chandelier?” [changes voice] “How peculiar! How grand!” When lit, these candles and glittering surfaces and crystals and fish made us look like a small moon, or maybe a disco ball. But a very fancy one. [disco music plays] In short, we were a lot to look at, which is why I myself was able to hide in plain sight within my chandelier. Even so, I am spectacular. But I am also a little dangerous, or I was. [scary music]

To make gilded bronze forms like me, craftsmen would grind pure gold into a fine powder and mix it with mercury to form an amalgam, a paste. They would then carefully apply this paste to the surface of the bronze, and then—here’s the daring part—they would heat the whole piece over a fire. [flames roar] The mercury would burn away in a cloud of toxic fumes. Terrifying. But what remained fused to the surface of the bronze was a layer of pure gold. [bell chimes] The results looked exactly like solid gold: warm, lustrous, catching every flicker of candlelight. It did not tarnish. It did not dull. It glowed. [hums] Monsieur Galle’s craftsmen were extraordinarily skilled at this process, and that is why, 200 years later, I still look this magnificent. [rising piano chords]

Now, to really understand me, you need to know where I lived, too.

[Classical music plays]

Close your eyes and imagine you are in a grand room in a Parisian mansion. You stand on a floor of polished wood covered by an ornate rug. The walls are covered with sculpted wood panels, framed paintings, and mirrors of every size. And above you hangs a chandelier unlike anything you have ever seen. Do you even notice me, the griffin, among all this beauty?

French homes of this period, the ones that could afford a fish chandelier, were called hôtel particulier, and generally laid out in a similar way. Part of the home had rooms arranged in a long line, one opening into the next with tall double doors, like a string of elegant pearls. You might pass through an antechamber, then a salon, a music room, and then, of course, the formal dining room.

[Violin music plays]

Dinners were quite the production, and served in the French style, or à la française. This is when all items of a course are served on the table at the same time. Since the items were on display, the guests could add to their plates whichever combination of dishes they wished. It was all to the taste of the guest, not the chef. In the French style, there are no decorative centerpieces, just the food in the middle of the table, serving as the sustenance and as the decoration. [bells chime] A typical dinner party would consist of three courses of six to 25 dishes per course. [moans] The third course on these occasions would be dessert. [crowd murmurs and says “Ooh!”]

Have you ever been to or hosted a big holiday dinner? Maybe something for Thanksgiving or a birthday. What’s your favorite part? Is it the decorations, the dishes, or the delightful desserts? [child says “Yummy.”] Do you serve everything on the table all at once, or one course at a time from the kitchen? And does someone put all your food on your plate, or is dining a choose-your-own-adventure for you, huh? [adventurous music and sword fighting]

[laughs] Oh, I suppose it doesn’t matter, as long as the food and the company are good.

Now, where was I? Ah, in the dining room.

[Violin music plays over chatter]

I hung at the very center of the ceiling, the most important position in a very important room, if I do say so myself. This also meant I witnessed everything: every guest who entered, every soup slurped, every dessert admired, every secret whispered behind a painted fan. [whispers] I heard it all.

Now, what sort of dinner party stories should I share with you? Hmm. Once, oh, I saw a very distinguished gentleman neglect to offer to plate the food for a noble woman seated next to him. [group gasps] She was forced to reach across the table and plate the food herself. [tearfully] Can you imagine? [crowd says “Unbelievable.”] Well, obviously women can do anything, but the rudeness at such a formal dinner was quite the scandal.

But the story I want to tell you, oh, the one I think of most often, is about a child. [children laugh] She was eight, uh, perhaps nine. Is the daughter of a cousin visiting from Leon. She was meant to be asleep in the nursery at the top of the house. But how on earth could she be asleep with such lively guests below her? The chatter coming up through the ceiling. Oh, for a child lying awake in the dark, it must have sounded like the whole world was happening without her. She tiptoed downstairs, and no one noticed. And why would they? 20 people, each absorbed in their own conversation, their own glass, their own reflection in the mirrors. The little girl hid behind a chair, close enough to witness everything. [crowd chatter]

And then she saw it! A beautiful portion of mille-feuille, a decadent confection made with three layers of puff pastry, with layers of cream in between. It was untouched, abandoned. Well, someone must have had plans to come back for it later. But with no hesitation, the young girl took it, a small fee for the noise keeping her awake. While she carefully crept back up the stairs, she looked up and locked eyes with me, and took in the beauty of the old chandelier. This child with her stolen pastry could just barely see them. [dramatic classical music] Yes, the fish! Small moving shapes of orange and gold inside a glowing globe suspended in the air above oblivious adults. [dramatic classical music repeats] I never saw her again, but I will never forget how she noticed me.

Next time you are out in a new place, maybe a museum or a very old house or building, take a moment and look all around you. Look at what is covering the floor or what is hanging from the ceiling. You might just see something no one else has noticed in a long time and make a gilded bronze griffin feel special and seen.

[Theme music begins]

Host: I hope you enjoyed learning about gilt bronze and dinner parties. Join us next time when a very timely dragon drops into the studio. [deep growl] To see photographs of the Galle chandelier and a recreation of what it would’ve looked like with fish, visit our website at Getty dot edu slash ioct. We’ve also got a listening guide with discussion questions and related activities there.

This episode was written by Tocarra Elise and produced by Zoe Goldman. Ronnie Saxon voiced the griffin. Theme music, mixing, and sound design by Alexandra Kalinowski. Christopher Sprinkle is executive producer. Special thanks to curators Anne-Lise Desmas and Miriam Schefzyk, as well as Rebekkah Hart.

These stories are historical fiction. They’re based on historical facts and deep research, but we’ve filled in the gaps to make a good story. If you have questions about what you’ve heard, write to us at podteam at getty dot edu. Catch you next time.