Asset number
321338001
Description
Terracotta group (hanging lamp): a reveller and his slave boy: the lamp is intact. The back is plain except for a small 'filling hole' with a semicircular ledge beneath. It was made in a two-piece mould, with an inset floor for the oil chamber. The fabric is an orangey-brown clay with a darker surface, with no mica but some dark grit. This lively group shows a young man wearing a slightly disordered short tunic and himation, leaning on a small African boy with his left hand, and on a walking stick with his right. His widely spaced legs appear to stagger: he is perhaps returning home after a wild night of drinking. On his head he wears a large and elaborate wreath consisting of ivy leaves and large fruits(?), which is secured by a strip of cloth, the ends of which fall on to his shoulders. The boy leans to his left side, perhaps pushed in this direction by the pressure exerted by the drunken man who leans on him: his left leg is extended to steady himself further. The boy wears a short, belted tunic and carries a lantern to light the way home. The man's wreath suggests that he has participated in some form of ceremony associated with the wine-god Dionysos.
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