Silver, gilding, and niello, iron core German, Hildesheim, before 1022 Dom-Museum Hildesheim (DS L 9) These rare and precious candlesticks are perhaps the most important to survive from the Middle Ages. Masterpieces of casting, they are lavishly decorated with a variety of motifs, including abundant foliage, nude men riding dragons, and figures climbing the vine-covered shaft or eating grapes, which might allude to the Eucharist. Both candlesticks bear the following enigmatic inscription in Latin: "Bishop Bernward ordered his servant to cast this candlestick in the first flowering of this art, not from gold or silver but nevertheless as you see it here."
aperture=f3.5 focal length: 60.0 mm exposure 1/160 sec ISO: 2000