Bronze Lamp Hanger with Two Dolphins and Tabula Ansata

Culture: Roman

Period: 2nd-3rd century A.D.

Material: Bronze

Dimensions: 12.8 cm high

Price: 980 Euro

Ref: 3786

Provenance: Viennese collection of Cajetan Grill, 1990s.

Condition: Intact

Description: An interesting hanger belonging to a bronze lamp, decorated in its lower section with two sculptural dolphins. The hanger itself consists of a ring connected below to an uninscribed tablet (“tabula ansata”). Such tablets were occasionally inscribed with Greek dedicatory inscriptions to the highest god “Theos Hypsistos,” suggesting that these lamps may have held cultic significance for the Hypsistarians – a monotheistic religious community in Roman Asia Minor and the Black Sea region. The tablet is framed externally by two volutes and internally supported by the intertwined tails of two vertically arranged dolphins. The animals are depicted diving headfirst, resting their jaws upon square bases. These bases were originally soldered to a hanging lamp with two nozzles, with each dolphin oriented toward a wick opening. See the only known example of such a suspension with its associated lamp in the Dorotheum auction, Vienna, 6 June 2000, lot 256. The piece is published in: Norbert Franken „Lampen für die Götter. Beobachtungen zur Funktion der sogenannten Vexillumaufsätze“, Istanbuler Mitteilungen no. 52, 2002, p. 369-381. See for the type, the bronze lamp hanger in the Metropolitan Museum, with the object number 63.185.1, as well as the example in the Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, with the inventory number 1972.314. Mounted.