It was said that the Roman historian Pliny preferred the ‘even flame’ of a lamp to that of a candle for working at night. Based largely on antique forms, bronze lamps in the Renaissance were often fashioned into amusing grotesques. The cheeks on the sphinx are puffed out as though blowing on the flame, while the dragon, whose mouth housed the flame, is designed so that it can be carried or hung safely by the curled tail.
Physical description
Bronze lamp in the form of a grotesque horned, female sphinx, with strapwork and foliated enrichment, from whose breast a snail protrudes to form the nozzle, after a model by Il Riccio
Place of Origin
Padua (made)
Date
ca. 1510-1530 (made)
Artist/maker
Briosco, Andrea (Il Riccio), born 1470 - died 1532 (after, artist)
Materials and Techniques
Cast bronze
Dimensions
Height: 11.6 cm, Width: 5.6 cm, Depth: 14.3 cm
Descriptive line
Bronze lamp in the form of a female grotesque, possibly after a model by Andrea Briosco, Italy (Padua), about 1500-20
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Drury, C and Fortnum, E: A Descriptive Catalogue of the bronzes of European origin in the South Kensington Museum London, 1876, pp. 163 - 164
Radcliffe, Anthony: Ricciana, in The Burlington Magazine, CXXIV, July 1982, pp. 412-424
Avery, Charles: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in the Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, 1993, pp. 35-37, Cat. No. 2
The V&A version is not cited by C Avery
van Biniebeke, Emile: Bronze Sculpture: Sculpture from 1500-1800 in the collection of the Boymans-van Berningen Museum, Rotterdam, 1994, pp. 142-143, Cat. No. 43
Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1859. In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 35
Production Note
Possibly after a model by Andrea Briosco, who is also called "Il Riccio"
Materials
Bronze
Subjects depicted
Grotesques; Monster; Sphinx
Categories
Sculpture; Lighting
Collection code
SCP
