ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art

Lamp with Female Head Protome

AAT Object Form/FunctionHanging Lamps

CultureWestern Greek

PeriodArchaic

Datelate 6th Century BCE

MediumCeramic

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions3 15/16 x 1 15/16 x 4 1/8 in. (10 x 4.9 x 10.4 cm)

Object number1984.010

Label TextSemicircular hanging lamp with an open oil chamber, the flat rim decorated with incised tongues and grooves. The center of the straight front side is decorated with a female protome wearing a shallow kalathos and necklace, and with her hair arranged in three stylized braids on each shoulder. Extensive traces of black and white pigment are preserved on the face, hair, eyes, and on the necklace and kalathos. The reserved spaces to either side of the head are decorated with a border of incised tongues and grooves. Projecting from the curved side are three grooved suspension-lugs, arranged equidistantly and pierced through the depth of the lamp. A triangular recess in the floor of the oil chamber would have secured the wick, which passed through a hole in the front wall of the lamp to rest on the protome. The Greek letter kappa ('K') is inscribed on the underside.

The shape and decoration of this lamp relates it to a small class of stone lamps, made mostly from marble and dating from the seventh and sixth centuries BC, either with human or animal protomes or plain bosses to carry the wick.
Exhibition HistoryAn Enduring Ideal: Classical Art from the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, November 1, 1992 - February 15, 1993
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11,1993 - May 2004
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - April 28, 2014
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, July 2014 - Present

ProvenancePurchased by Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology from Brian T. Aitken (1952-2009) [Acanthus Gallery], New York, New York.

InscribedK

Status

On view

Collections