Oil Lamp with Bound Prisoner

Description Elaborate oil lamps with figural attachments were common at the royal court in the ancient kingdom of Meroë. This lamp depicts a captive nude prisoner, his hands bound to his ankles. The lamp would have been suspended by a chain from the collar around the figure's neck. A Meroitic symbol, perhaps an owner's mark, is incised on the prisoner's shoulders.

Exhibitions

• Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton. 2012-2013.

Provenance Guilhou Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 16-18 March 1905, lot 307 [said to be found in Egypt]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1905, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1905