Lamp in the Form of a Foot with a Serpent

Description This lamp is shaped like a foot wearing a sandal and is topped by a rod with a serpent crowned by a sun disk. Lamps played an important role in the rituals connected to the solar aspects of Harpocrates and Serapis, as well as in the Isis mysteries. The Serapis-foot demonstrated the god's eternal presence. These feet were mostly combined with a bust of the deity, and this lamp likely had such an image of Serapis on the lid.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
5/16/1983	Treatment	cleaned; other

Exhibitions

• Designed for Use: Ancient Industrial Arts. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1983.
• Serapis: The Creation of a God. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2002.

Provenance Giovanni Dattri, Cairo, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Lambros-Dattari Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 1912, June 17-19, 1912, p. 53, no. 460; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1912