Round Terracotta Lamp with Eros Relief

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Description: 

Round Terracotta Lamp with Eros Relief

terracotta: moldmade, fabric: relatively fine with yellow clay
height 2.6 cm
length 9.7 cm
width 6.7 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #52, PSU 009bis (19)

 

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This is a fictile lamp with a round body and a medium-length nozzle, which has surface volutes. On the enclosed, pierced top is a figure of a cupid sowing seeds. Shape: Round bodied lamp w/ flat base and broad, extended nozzle with rounded termination and concave discus. Off-center fill hole. No handle. Decoration: Relief on discus consisting of a winged figure (probably Eros) striding forward to right with right leg advanced and left leg bent back behind him. Left arm extended in front holding attribute -- bow/arrow? musical instrument? scales? Right arm extended back and may also have an attribute – sack? Quiver case?  Two volutes decorate top of nozzle; raised ridge on either side of nozzle corresponding with volutes on top. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Intact except for two small pick marks on top; burning on top, especially near nozzle; slip mostly worn away; greenish residue near bottom; relief very worn.

Protocol: 
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center - Public Access
Community: 
Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Category: 
Ceramics, Utilitarian Objects
Keywords: 
Lamp
Rights: 
Image reproduced with permission from Portland State University Middle East Studies Center. The institutions that house the specific Medieval Portland objects ultimately hold the rights to their image and reproduction; the images are provided here as a courtesy by those institutions and are for non-profit, educational use only.