Chandelier, a French term meaning candlestick, suggests the simplicity of its earliest forms. Any configuration of candles overhead was an important supplement when only single candles, small oil lamps, and hearth fires held off the night. "The polycandelon from sixth-century Constantinople was probably one of the earliest identifiable precursors of the chandelier," says Jutta-Annette Page, who is curator of glass and decorative arts at the Toledo Museum of Art. "In the medieval period, multiple candles or oil-and-wicks in cups on a simple overhead wooden cross would have been expensive and rarely afforded outside the church."

An inventory of Henry VIII's estate in the 1540s listed a candle beam with double candlesticks on each of its arms. Metal chandeliers with multiple arms holding candles appeared in the homes of prosperous merchants of the Low Countries around that time. Flemish painter Jan van Eyck painted what might be the earliest image of the chandelier in his 1434 marriage portrait of Giovanni Arnofini and His Bride. The form, which has arms for candles branching off a central stem and a reflective balancing ball at the bottom, is one of the oldest in use.

The high cost of candles usually limited chandeliers to the best room of the house. Dutch paintings frequently depict them without candles because the precious commodity was locked away during the day. Elsewhere in Europe, having multiple candles was hardly possible. "Chandeliers are by no means common in French and English inventories before 1670," notes Peter Thornton in his book titled Authentic Decor, The Domestic Interior 1620-1920. Maximizing the candle's power was paramount and led to the technological advance of hanging clear carved rock crystals (quartz) from a gilt-finished metal frame studded with candles. The crystals magnified the candlelight.

Less-costly glass replaced rock crystal in the early 18th century. The addition of lead oxide to ordinary glass, a process pioneered by George Ravenscroft in England in 1676, revolutionized the humble chandelier. Robert Brill, research scientist at The Corning Museum of Glass, explains that the lead oxide in glass causes light rays to disperse, resulting in "a colorful display resembling a rainbow." Lead oxide also facilitated glass cutting, a boon in producing even more fiery refractive surfaces for beams of candlelight.

By the second half of the 18th century, thousands of shaped and faceted pendants evolved for grander light effects. Frames diversified and grew larger and more extravagant. The artful explosion of the fixture in the 18th and 19th centuries impacted formal interior design in Europe, but today's protocol for using chandeliers is relaxed. "I could put them in every room," says New Orleans designer Gerrie Bremermann. "They fill a void while making an elegant statement. I prefer them overscaled and exaggerated."

However, as for size and positioning, Bill Rau of M.S. Rau Antiques in New Orleans cautions, "Don't buy one too small for your room. When hanging a chandelier, hang it the absolute lowest you think it ought to go. Then, if it doesn't look right, raise it link by link until you reach the optimum height."

Dallas decorator Paul Garzotto remembers an 18th-century Russian opaline-stemmed beauty with amethyst drops. He chose not to electrify it and raised and lowered it on a silk cord in the seating nook of a client's aquamarine bedroom. "Chandeliers are the furnishing most like jewelry," he says. "They sparkle. People have the most emotional reaction to them. They're ruinously expensive but absolutely lift a room out of the doldrums."