Lamp with Griffin-Head Handle (300s–400s CE): Art, History and Details

Lamp with Griffin-Head Handle (300s–400s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Bronze oil lamps with griffin-head handles and Christian symbolic decoration were common from the 4th through the 6th centuries and have survived in considerable numbers all over the Mediterranean world. The popularity of griffins, ancient mythological creatures with the body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle, is probably rooted in their traditional role as powerful guardian figures and protectors. On this Early Byzantine bronze lamp, the griffin seems to have functioned similarly as a guardian of the flame and a keeper of the light. The decoration of an everyday utilitarian object with both pagan and Christian symbols of protection may mark an effort to enhance its power.

Object facts

• Title: Lamp with Griffin-Head Handle
• Date: 300s–400s CE
• Culture: Byzantium, Syria(?), Byzantine period
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.7 x 22.6 x 7 cm (5 13/16 x 8 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Byzantine
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1974.77

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Chester D. Tripp in honor of William Mathewson Milliken on his 85th year

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.