2007.104.10: Lamp with Animal Combat Scene

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2007.104.10

Title

Lamp with Animal Combat Scene

Classification

Lighting Devices

Work Type

lighting device

Date

175-225 CE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Unidentified Site

Period

Roman Imperial period, Middle

Culture

Roman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/175170

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Mold-made

Dimensions

3.6 x 6.6 x 9.2 cm (1 7/16 x 2 5/8 x 3 5/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Walton Brooks McDaniel, New Jersey (?-1943/46) gift; to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, (1943/46-2012) transfer; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 2007.

Note: Walton Brooks McDaniel gave a portion of his collection to the Department of the Classics in 1943 and the rest in 1946. The Collection is named for his late wife, Alice Corinne McDaniel.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University

Accession Year

2007

Object Number

2007.104.10

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

Terracotta oil lamp: heart-shaped nozzle with some charring. Slight ring base surrounded by two grooves. Curved rim decorated with molded wreath or a garland of bundled foliage tied at intervals. Low, projecting vertical pierced handle, in the rear, with grooves. The shallow central discus is decorated with molded relief of a lion attacking a bull. Stamp reading LCAESAE on the bottom.

Orange buff fabric with traces of red-orange slip.

Classification: D. Bailey, A catalogue of the lamps in the British Museum vol. II (British Museum Publications, 1988), Type Q.

Commentary

An oil lamp is a lighting device, which is fueled by oil. Roman lamps are usually made of either terracotta or bronze and are mold-made. Typically, the body is round and closed on top and there is a nozzle with a pick. Terracotta lamps are usually decorated with a wide variety of motifs. In houses, lamps may have stood on the top of a candelabrum (See: 1960.482) to light a room.

The stamp found on the bottom of this lamp refers to the lampmaker Lucius Caecilius Saecularis who was active in central Italy during the mid-second and early third centuries CE (1).

Notes:
1. For the stamp and lampmaker, see D. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, vol. II (British Museum Publications, 1988), p. 91-92.

Subjects and Contexts

• Roman Domestic Art

Verification Level