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Source Description
Oil lamps in the shape of a head of an animal or person were created in Italy during the Renaissance in imitation of similar ones made by the ancient Romans. 17th-century collectors could not tell the difference and collected the Renaissance examples as “antiquities.” This oil lamp would have been appreciated not only for its “antiquity” but also for its exoticism. Another such lamp in a princely collection of the time was called a “heathen head” and considered to be Roman; it was not recognized as a work of the early 1500s until 1940.The representation is undignified—the wick would have stuck out of the man’s mouth—but the dignity of persons considered to be “savage” or “heathen” was not of much concern to most in Europe at the time.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
13088
label
Oil Lamp in the Shape of an African's Head
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
5
Source metadata
id
13088
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Oil Lamp in the Shape of an African's Head
description
Oil lamps in the shape of a head of an animal or person were created in Italy during the Renaissance in imitation of similar ones made by the ancient Romans. 17th-century collectors could not tell the difference and collected the Renaissance examples as “antiquities.” This oil lamp would have been appreciated not only for its “antiquity” but also for its exoticism. Another such lamp in a princely collection of the time was called a “heathen head” and considered to be Roman; it was not recognized as a work of the early 1500s until 1940.The representation is undignified—the wick would have stuck out of the man’s mouth—but the dignity of persons considered to be “savage” or “heathen” was not of much concern to most in Europe at the time.
provenance
Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1931; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1540 (Renaissance)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
lamps
imageCount
5
pageCount
5
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
4
height
7.8
depth
4
dimensionsRaw
H: 1 9/16 x W: 3 1/16 x D: 1 9/16 in. (4 x 7.8 x 4 cm)
Source extras
med
bronze
creator_ids
33562
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
2444
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
81e4b4a5231c6600
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
68da086078894bbb
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
ecd6a93ff496087c
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
4
type
photo
mediaId
acf465c083c1534a
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
5
type
photo
mediaId
d998211958c731c5
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no