
These two Baroque torches from the bakers’ guild feature a staff topped with a sculptural group and, above it, a candle holder. Guild members proudly carried the torches during processions as a symbol of their craft.
Torches were important ceremonial and symbolic objects for craft guilds, often commissioned from skilled artists. As a mark of their profession, the bakers chose their patron, Saint Aubert, depicted handing out loaves of bread. Aubertus of Kamerijk (c. 600–669?) was bishop of Atrecht and Kamerijk and is said to have baked bread with his own hands during a famine, distributing it to the townspeople.