Polycandelion with Glass Lamps

Whether in a church adorned with stained-glass windows or in a space with only small openings in the walls, the light entering from outside would have mingled with flickering oil lamps and candles inside, illuminating some areas of painted or mosaic-clad walls while leaving other spaces dark. Candles were set into candlesticks placed on altars and on the floor supported by holders affixed to columns and wall. Oil lamps could be suspended between the columns lining the nave, or over the altar. This example of a Byzantine chandelier, or "polycandelion" (Greek for "many lights"), made around the seventh century, consists of an openwork bronze disk with holes for seven glass lamps, one in the center and six surrounding it.

Referring to the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, illuminated with similar hanging lamps, the poet Paul the Silentiary wrote in 563: "No words are sufficient to describe the illumination in the evening. You might say that some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church with its light."

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Heidi Vollmoeler, Zurich, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1965, by purchase.