Sconce in the Form of an Arm. Possibly Italy, late 16th century [4000 x 2984]

>This bronze sconce in the form of a human arm extends from a circlet of drapery, the hand gripping a vertical cylinder. The piece is hollow-cast with a light brown patina and traces of an overall transparent reddish brown lacquer and gilding. It came to The Met in 1977, when two elements not original to the composition were removed: a pan fitted to the cylinder for holding a candle, and an inverted bulblike ornament at the cylinder’s base. Wilhelm von Bode published the object as “Venice, about 1550.” While in Untermeyer’s possession, it was catalogued as Venetian and dated to the second half of the seventeenth century, but James David Draper thought it more likely a product of “an earlier moment under Florentine influence,” alluding to the manner of Giambologna and his followers. By 1985, it had acquired the more generic designation of Italian, late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.

[Source](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/203959)