Ox-head Oil Lamp

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 16

Inventory

PV 09267

Material and technique

Bronze, patina, varnish

Author

Paduan School

Dating

c. 1500-1550

Dimensions

10.2 x 13.6 x 17.8 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This lamp assumes the form of an ox’s head. A garland surrounds the hole for the oil between the horns, with foliage falling down the side of the ox’s head; the wick is inserted at the front. The bronze was believed to be a unique Renaissance work, but it has origins in antiquity, where such lamps were relatively common.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 40 p. 57, pl. XIV; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 33; D. Blume in H. Beck - P. C. Bol, Natur und Antike in der Renaissance, exh. cat., Frankfurt am Main 1985, no. 215 p. 505; P. Cannata in M. De Vincenti - E. Gastaldi (eds.), Donatello e il suo tempo: il bronzetto a Padova nel Quattrocento e nel Cinquecento, exh. cat., Milan 2001, no. 53, pp. 208-209.