41.1908: Lamp with Male Figure

Identification and Creation

Object Number

41.1908

Title

Lamp with Male Figure

Classification

Lighting Devices

Work Type

lighting device

Date

75-125 CE

Places

Creation Place: Europe, Italy

Period

Roman Imperial period

Culture

Roman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/293533

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Mold-made

Dimensions

12.2 × 23.6 × 17.8 cm (4 13/16 × 9 5/16 × 7 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Lent by the Misses Katherine B. and Mary D. Upham, March 14, 1908.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Loan from Estate of Donald Upham and Mrs. R. U. Hunter

Object Number

41.1908

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Mold made lamp with a flat base delineated by a circular groove. A maker's mark on base reads: L M ADIEC. Below this inscription is a small, incuse crescent, pointing upwards. Curved, flaring walls form a mid-volume reservoir while the rim slopes upward, separated from the concave discus by three circular ridges. On the discus a male figure (Apollo?), draped at the waist and with a billowing cape arched above his head. The figure reclines on a swimming dolphin, below which is located the circular filling hole. The nozzle is short and rounded with a horizontal upper edge. A small channel runs between the filling hole on the discus and the horizontal edge of the nozzle. Pierced, vertical handle with a double groove.

Orange-tan, micaceous, heavy fabric. Dark orange slip mostly worn away. Striations on surface of lamp appear to be from an attempt at smoothing when the clay was too dry.

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

Commentary

An oil lamp is a lighting device, which is fueled by oil. Roman lamps are typically 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 maker's mark on the base of this lamp, L. M. ADIEC, is that of the workshop of L. Munatus Adiectus. Although found twice as often in north Africa than on the Italian peninsula, based on the fabric and stamp forms, this particular lamp may come from a central Italian workshop, most active during the Flavian and Trajanic periods, and with an extensive African export trade (1).

Notes:
1. Most similar to Type P lamps in D. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, vol. II (British Museum Publications, 1988), p. 92, fig. 107. For a similar nozzle channel, see specifically Q1317 and Q1318, produced in the late Flavian to Hadrianic periods.

Subjects and Contexts

• Roman Domestic Art

Verification Level