Manner of Severo da Ravenna
active 1500-1525,
Pair of Oil Lamps in the Form of a Sphinx
Padua, Italy, 16th century
Bronze.
lamp 1: 6 1/2 x 6 x 2 3/4 inches (165 x 152 x 70 mm); lamp 2: 6 1/4 x 5 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches (159 x 146 x 70 mm)
AZ128.1-2
Provenance
Goldschmidt, Paris (AZ128.1) and Frankfurt (AZ128.2); Baron Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), Paris; his sale, Paris, 17 April-16 June 1893, lots 1472, 1473; Jacques Seligmann (1858-1923), New York; from whom purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1909.
Summary
Two oil lamps in the shape of crouching grotesque sphinxes (with male heads and female breasts) with three "feet." One (AZ128.1) creature has human hands in place of forelegs. Both have been later outfitted with helmets and a cover in the shape of a shell on their backs; the bodies were formerly used to contain oil, but were converted in modern times to function as inkwells with fitted containers.
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