Openwork lamp with phytomorphic decoration

C/ Historiador Palau, Denia Bronze h: 21 cm; w: 26 cm; Fatimid Islamic 2nd ½ c. 10th c.

An incomplete lamp with part of its base missing and its body completely flattened. Its original shape is truncated cone-shaped. It rests on three legs, only two of which have survived; these are in the shape of animals, possibly lions. The decoration on the main body is structured in two parallel bands separated by a plain band. The bands are decorated with the same plant motif as the Tree of Life, arranged in a border of circling tendrils that alternately enclose leaves, apples, bunches and sometimes trifoliate leaves. The lamp has a tulip-shaped finial with a projecting rim and rectangular perforations. This finial is linked to the body by means of bundles of double stems. The work is made in lost wax using a refined fretwork technique.

The formal resemblance to the large incense burner in the Louvre Museum (PARIS, 1977, no. 19) dated to the 9th century: its upper part is formally very similar to our lamp, as is the presence of the legs of a zoomorphic figure, in this case hares; the development of the phytomorphic motif, with bundles of stems encircling the trifoliate leaves and clusters, etc., all point to the profound and intense Coptic influence of the work.

CS: 7699
AZUAR, R., 1989.