Double Nozzle Terracotta Lamp with Relief of Woman Riding a Sea Creature

Double Nozzle Terracotta Lamp with Relief of Woman Riding a Sea Creature

terracotta: fine clay. Munsell: 5 YR 6/4 light reddish brown
height 3.8 cm
length 11.1 cm
width 8.1 cm

Portland State University Middle East Studies Center
Bogue Lamp Collection, Lamp ID #54, PSU 056 (84)

Professor Anne Nicogorski, Willamette University, cited with permission

This pink, molded lamp has double nozzles w/ large, round wick holes. One of the ends is missing. The handle is missing but of the large, leaf variety, and the lower portion, which remains, is pierced. The eccentrically pierced discus is decorated with the relief form of a woman encircled by a halo and riding on a long-tailed, four-legged animal. Shape: Round-bodied lamp with shallow ring base with two extended nozzles with rounded terminations; concave discus with small off-center fill hole and pierced vertical lug handle located underneath the now-missing triangular heat shield and opposite nozzles. Decoration: Covered with reddish slip (2.5 YR 5/6 red).  Discus decorated with relief; outlined by two concentric raised circles; female figure (Aphrodite or Nereid) seated "side saddle" on sea-creature (dolphin, ketos) with long forked tail moving to right; body faces frontally, head turned in profile to right; left arm lowered to creature’s head; right arm upraised holding drapery that billows overhead; upper torso nude; lower body draped. Relief rosette at juncture of body and missing heat shield; three volutes decorating top surfaces of nozzles; raised ridges extend onto sides of nozzles. Covered with slip. Inscriptions: None. Condition: Mostly complete; missing heat shield and end of one nozzle; minor chips; surface abraded; burning at end of nozzles; relief worn.