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While literally thousands of terracotta oil lamps
survive from the Roman era, their bronze
counterparts are remarkably rare. An average
Roman citizen would have had a few fragile
terracotta lamps scattered about the house to
provide light in the hours of night. Bronze
lamps were the domain of the wealthy elite
whose villas would have been decorated with
durable bronze lamps displayed on elegant
stands. Bronze oil lamps were inherently more
expensive due to the high cost of refining and
casting metal. While luxury items in their own
time, bronze lamps were often melted down for
their metal value in times of war, only increasing
their scarcity today.
This striking bronze oil lamp features a
theatrical mask decorating the end tip of the
handle, with stylized waves of hair covering the
brow and curly locks framing the sides of the
face. There is a decorative palmette under the
chin. In antiquity, the
body would have been filled with an oil, be it
olive, fish, or castor, whatever was most plentiful
in the region, and a wick wound from fiber would
have produced a gentle flame at the spout.
Although a bit smelly and dirty, such a lamp
could burn for up to ten hours in one filling,
enough to last through the darkest night. We
can picture this lamp illuminating an ancient
temple, the light flickering against the columns,
throwing shadows onto the ground.
- (X.0075)
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