Josef Gocár: Chandelier

Besides the clock with no specific name Josef Gocár also designed a chandelier in 1913 whose name has also not been handed down. What is known however, is the idea upon which Gocár created this chandelier: the object of polished brass and glass is intended to express the energy of a summer storm. The crystals represent rain drops, the arms of the chandelier are bolts of lightning. The fact that the crystals refer to raindrops in Gocár’s chandelier is interesting in so far as Gocár creates a double allusion: on the one hand to the Ancient Greek word krystallos, which stands for frozen ice and is the etymological source of the word crystal, and on the other hand in Greek sagas crystals are often spoken of as the “tears of the gods”.