any idea on the maker of this old lamp? or who the subject is?

Discussion in 'Metalware' started by sunday silence, Aug 23, 2021.

  1. sunday silence

    sunday silence Well-Known Member

  2. sabre123

    sabre123 Well-Known Member

    Can you determine what the material of the figure is?
     
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  3. Roaring20s

    Roaring20s Well-Known Member

    Prometheus?
     
  4. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    I'd think Prometheus too. Bringing fire to the world. Here he is in Rockefeller Center doing same.

    Debora

    44581214840_e716090bbd_b.jpg
     
    pearlsnblume likes this.
  5. Aquitaine

    Aquitaine Is What It IS! But NEVER BORED!

    A quick question....is it that discolored or did you over-brighten the image for us.........? VERY COOL lamp!!!!:singing::singing::singing:
     
  6. verybrad

    verybrad Well-Known Member

    Shade is likely Czech.
     
  7. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Figure has a laurel wreath in the right hand. This is a common way of indicating Victory. May be an allegorical figure rather than a mythological one. Shades of the Olympic torch.

    Start the groaning now.
     
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  8. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    Prometheus was also known to carry a laurel branch.

    Debora
     
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  9. Roaring20s

    Roaring20s Well-Known Member

    No groaning. It then could be a post WWI lamp.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2021
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  10. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    I was not aware of this. Can you find me an image of him with a wreath or branch? Searches give more instances of Prometheus Bound, but of the ones I could find of him descending with the torch he is wreathless.

    The globe fits with either interpretation.
     
  11. Roaring20s

    Roaring20s Well-Known Member

  12. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    From the listing:

    The lamp depicts the allegorical figure of Victory, modelled as a nude youth with draperies, his arms outstretched, an olive branch in his right hand and the torch that holds the flambeau shade in his left. This figure is often seen simply as a spelter figure except he has two laurel wreaths in his left hand and is otherwise identical.

    He has a laurel branch in his right hand & the torch in his left. I see no wreaths except he may be wearing one. Fortunately the piece carries its own identification.
     
  13. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    I'd buy that (figuratively.) Prometheus is usually portrayed as a muscular man rather than a youth Here's something that associates him with laurel, by way. Thoughts welcome.

    "Prometheus: Titan son of Iapetus, brother of Epimetheus, and bringer of fire to humanity. For serving the gods a false sacrificial meal he was chained to the Caucasus for millennia, an eagle or vulture picking at his liver every night. Once liberated he wore a chunk of the mountain set in a ring and a laurel leaf around his head in remembrance of the authority of Olympus."

    Debora

    Screen Shot 2021-08-23 at 12.19.15 PM.png
     
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  14. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    That's a version of Prometheus' crime I had not heard before, including the wearing of a wreath.

    In the relief carving, the foliage behind Prometheus is probably meant to be olive, strongly associated with Athena. When he is done with his modeling, Athena will endow the man figure with a soul.
     
  15. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    @Bronwen, I bow to your superior scholarship.

    Debora
     
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  16. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    It's not much compared to the people who really know this stuff. It's just that certain features/attributes are used repeatedly to symbolize qualities of the subject. It's kind of a language & I have been trying for some years now to learn it.

    That dratted scene of Athena in a woodland clearing, surrounded by shepherds & nymphs, is still plaguing me. There's a whole paper that could be written about the way she is standing.
     
  17. sunday silence

    sunday silence Well-Known Member

    The one I show at the top is made of spelter
     

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