Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 18. Unpierced handle. Mold-made. Discus: naked man facing front but moving to right, holding large bulbous jar in lowered right hand and with a small amphora below raised left arm; around edge of discus, close-set, short radiating lines. Two filling holes, flanking figure at top. On broad, flat shoulder, stylized vines with many grapes. On concave base, Greek letters in relief: Broken and repaired, with one small hole and cracks at front around nozzle. This lamp is unusual since the figure on the discus faces the handle and so the holder of the lamp; most mold-made lamps have the decoration facing the nozzle so that it would be illuminated correctly by the burning wick. Here the figure is flanked by a large fish and an amphora; on the shoulder are vine tendrils and bunches of grapes. This imagery has been taken to be Christian, but the clarity of the molded details show that the figure is in fact nude and is therefore unlikely to be that of Christ.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art