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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1975.41.138
Title
Lamp with Cross-shaped Handle
Classification
Lighting Devices
Work Type
lighting device
Date
5th-7th century
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Byzantine period, Early
Culture
Byzantine
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/287415

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mixed copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
9.5 x 5.4 x 12.9 cm (3 3/4 x 2 1/8 x 5 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Mixed Copper Alloy:
Cu, 70.35; Sn, 2.21; Pb, 7.12; Zn, 19.66; Fe, 0.11; Ni, 0.12; Ag, 0.14; Sb, 0.06; As, 0.23; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Leaded Brass
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead, zinc
Other Elements: iron, nickel, silver, antimony, arsenic
K. Eremin, February 2014

Technical Observations: All the lamps in this group (1957.68.A-B, 1975.41.138, 1992.256.94, and 1992.256.227) are very dark, almost black, with a faint green cast. The surfaces are in good condition and are relatively free of corrosion products. 1992.256.227 is the one exception, and it shows some pitting and raised corrosion products. 1975.41.138 has a deep, pre-burial dent at the rim under the shell-shaped lid. All of the lamps have possible oil residues mixed with accretions and corrosion products in their interiors.

The lamps and lids are all cast. Although there is no visible evidence supporting the use of molds to make the wax models for the lamps, it seems likely that at least the wax model for the general shape of the body was cast. The interior surfaces do not reflect the shape of the feet, and the feet and handles were probably added manually to the cast wax bodies. The lids were cast separately and attached with a hinge held by a bronze pin, which is peened at both ends to hold it in place. The cruciform handle of 1957.68.A-B is not integral to the cast; it is instead held in place mechanically with a mortise and tenon joint. Grooves (0.1 cm wide at the top and bottom of the tenon) catch the edge of the mortise and help to hold this “removable” handle in place. Long striations visible in the better-preserved surfaces are burnish marks from finishing the surfaces during fabrication.

Lamps 1957.68.A-B and 1975.41.138 have tapered square holes at the middle of the bottom to insert the pin at the top of a stand such as 1975.41.141.A-C. These sleeves appear to have been formed by piercing the bottom of the wax model with a similar square pin and then building additional wax around that pin in the interior. With 1992.256.94, instead of a provision added in wax, a roll of sheet bronze was inserted into the hole to form the sleeve. It is not clear if this sleeve is held in place mechanically or if a solder is present.

Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Hagop Kevorkian collection (by 1941), gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1975.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of The Hagop Kevorkian Foundation in memory of Hagop Kevorkian
Accession Year
1975
Object Number
1975.41.138
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The lamp has a bulbous body and conch-shaped hinged lid. Its handle is in the shape of a cross with flared arms. The arms terminate in small circles, and a finger grip is soldered to the back of the cross. The base of the lamp forms a shallow disc and is indented to receive the pricket of a stand. The spout is unusually large and displays corrosion; the body is damaged by a deep indentation near the lip of the basin. The provenience and date of this object is unknown, but similar lamps come from Egypt and have been found in contexts dating to the fifth to seventh centuries (1).

Each of Harvard’s Byzantine lamps consists of a bulbous body, spout, lid, and handle. The central cavity held oil that provided the fuel for the wick in the spout. Most of these examples were pierced at their base by a tapering rectangular indentation rising through the central cavity to receive the pricket of a stand. Although some lamps could be hung from above, all lamps in this group lack suspension rings. Instead, they were placed on a table or a stand (such as 1975.41.141.A-C). The basic form of the reservoir, handle, and spout derives from ancient Greek and Roman types, with some examples dating probably as early as the third millennium BCE.

Lamps were widely used during the Byzantine period in both sacred and profane settings. In the Christian liturgical context, lamps functioned as votive offerings, processional objects, funerary accoutrements, and lighting devices for worship. Similarly, lighting was an important component of imperial ceremonial. The use of lamps in magical rituals is also attested during the early Byzantine period (2). Many homilies and theological essays of the Byzantine period ascribe symbolic significance to lamps, for example, as metaphors for the soul (3). In the household, lamps were primarily used for illumination of domestic space, but they could also play a role in private devotional practices (4). Excavations such as those in Cyprus show that together with a table and couch, lamps were the most common household furnishing until candles largely replaced lamps by the seventh century (5).

Byzantine lamps range from strictly utilitarian examples to elaborately adorned vessels accented with crosses, animals, and precious stones. The cross and shell embellishments found in these examples mix religious and classical motifs. Clay lamps were the least expensive and most widespread, while bronze and silver appeared in aristocratic households and ecclesiastical settings (6).

NOTES:

1. Compare M. Xanthopoulou, Les lampes en bronze à l’époque paléochrétienne, Bibliothèque de l’Antiquité tardive 16 (Turnhout, 2010) 111-12, no. LA 3.057-3.058.

2. L. Bouras and M. G. Parani, Lighting in Early Byzantium (Washington, DC, 2008) 21-29; Xanthopoulou 2010 (supra 1) 65-70.

3. E. D. Maguire, H. P. Maguire, and M. J. Duncan-Flowers, Art and Holy Powers in the Early Christian House, exh. cat., Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, 1989) 58; and Xanthopoulou 2010 (supra 1) 70.

4. A. Kazhdan and L. Bouras, “Lighting in Everyday Life,” in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. P. Kazhdan, 3 vols. (New York, 1991) 2:1228; Bouras and Parani 2008 (supra 1) 20; and Xanthopoulou 2010 (supra 1) 63-65.

5. D. Soren, “An Earthquake on Cyprus: New Discoveries from Kourion,” Archaeology 38 (1985): 52-59, 52.

6. Maguire et al. 1989 (supra 3) 58; and A. Gonosová and C. Kondoleon, Art of Late Rome and Byzantium in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, 1994) 175.


Anne Druckenbrod Gossen

Publication History

  • "Pagan and Christian Egypt: Egyptian Art from the First to the Tenth Century A.D." (1941), Brooklyn Museum, p. 34, no. 89, ill.
  • Ioli Kalavrezou, Byzantine Women and Their World, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 196, no. 109, fig. 109.
  • Maria Xanthopoulou, Les lampes en bronze à l’époque paléochrétienne, Brepols (Turnhout, 2010), p. 112, no. LA 3.059.

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu