Ancient Roman Terracotta Oil Lamp with Venus Bathing

£ 550.00

A fine Roman terracotta oil lamp featuring a circular body with a decorated discus, scrolling volute spines, and rounded nozzle. On the central, concave discus, a female figure, likely the goddess Venus, is depicted bathing. She is nude from the waist up with her anatomy, including her breasts, ribs, and belly button, rendered naturalistically. Her right hand is raised to her face and her left arm holds together drapery around her lower body. Much detail has been lavished onto the folds of the drapery as it falls around her and clings onto her right leg. Her head is angled slightly downwards and her hair is in an updo. To her left, there is a vase on a column, allowing the viewer to understand that the figure is bathing. With the goddess half-dressed, it is unclear as to whether she is just about to bathe, and thus is removing her clothes, or whether she has just finished bathing and is now dressing. The use of drapery in this image serves to highlight her nudity, drawing the eye upwards towards her torso. The shoulders of the lamp are undecorated, focusing the viewer’s attention on the taboo scene of a goddess in the nude. This scene sits within concentric circles and has a filling hole to the right. The oil lamp sits on a flattened ring foot.

This lamp is categorised as Loeschcke type IV, characterised by its rounded nozzle and volute spines.

Date: Circa 1st Century AD
Condition: Fine. Some burn marks to the nozzle and body of the oil lamp. Minor flaking, chipping, and scratches to the discus, edges, and sides of the oil lamp consistent with age. The figure's face has been worn off.
Product Code: RES-262
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Oil lamps, or a lychnus, from the Greek λυχνος, were commonplace throughout the Roman Empire, and were used for domestic, public, and religious purposes. These included funeral ceremonies, lighting up businesses, and creating ‘special effects’ at the theatre. The oldest Roman lamps date back to the third century BC, and it is thought that they were influenced by the Southern Italic style. These were more enclosed than their predecessors, allowing for further decoration on the discus. The vast trade networks set with the expansion of the Roman Empire allowed this item to be spread across Europe, Eastern Asia and Northern Africa, which led to the development of several provincial variations.

By time of the Roman Empire, depictions of Venus bathing was a common decorative motif, found on vases, oil lamps, such as this piece, as sculptures in the gardens of the wealthy, on coinage, and on frescos. However, when the Greek sculptor Praxiteles first created the marble statue now known as the Aphrodite of Knidos, which depicted the goddess bathing, it was the first monumental depiction of a female nude. Greek art was previously dominated with depictions of the nude male form in heroic situations, so the choice to depict the goddess not just nude, but also engaging in such a mundane act as bathing was striking. This marble statue established the canon for the proportions of the female body in sculpture and added to a growing discussion about the worship of the gods. Though it does not survive today, its cultural significance cannot be understated, with Pliny declaring it superior to all other statues in the world. Its continued influence on the ancient psyche is clear from this oil lamp.

To discover more about the ancient origins of oil lamps, visit our relevant post: Oil Lamps in Antiquity.

Weight 74.1 g
Dimensions L 10.8 x W 7.6 x H 3.1 cm
Region

Southern Europe

Pottery

Terracotta

Reference: For a similar item, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, item 74.51.1933

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