Roman Redware Lamp with Radiate Head of Serapis

3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.

4 3/4 in. (145 grams, 12.2 cm wide).

Comprising a squat body with thick nozzle and lug handle, band of leaves and bunches of grapes to the discus, surrounding a bust of Serapis with modius and radiate crown; maker's initials to the underside 'S. S. L.'.

Provenance

Ex London gallery 1980s.
From the collection of a deceased Lancashire gentleman.

Literature

See Bussière, J., Lindros Wohl, B., Ancient Lamps in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 2017, p.349, for the type, close to the Atlante VI.

Footnotes

Serapis was a Graeco-Egyptian god, whose cult was popularised during the 3rd century B.C. on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt, to facilitate the religious syncretism of his kingdom. During the Roman Empire his image was widely diffused in the east, and the image of Zeus-Serapis was often fitted with the radiate crown, linking it with the cult of Sol Invictus; the position as the main divinity of the Roman Pantheon strengthened by Lucius Domitius Aurelian (270-275 A.D.).

CONDITION

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LOT 0567