Standing Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket Stand

Standing Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket Stand

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Standing lamps decorated with crosses and supported on footed bases were common in the early Byzantine world. Bishop Theodoret of Cyrrhus in Syria (d. ca. 466) described Saint Symeon Stylites, who lived atop a column, as “this dazzling lamp, [who] as if placed on a lampstand, has sent out rays in all directions likes the sun.”

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Standing Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket StandStanding Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket StandStanding Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket StandStanding Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket StandStanding Lamp with a Cross on a Pricket Stand

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.