Monkey Holding a Long Spike in its Forepaws

6th-7th century CE · Sculpture

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Harvard Art Museums

Cambridge, USA

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Uændret siden: 27. sep. 2026
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This figurine originally constituted the upper part of a portable lampstand. The monkey stands upright on its hind legs and holds a sword in its forepaws. Its facial features are incised with two parallel lines for each of the eyes, a triangle for the nose, and a wide curve for the mouth. The figure is broken at the ankles and tail. The sword served as a pricket (holding spike) for a lamp; the lamp would have been formed with a hole in its bottom into which the pricket would fit, thereby allowing it to be held securely (see 1975.41.141.A-C). The monkey was originally attached to either a pedestal base or a collapsible, interlocking stand (1). A comparable sixth- to seventh-century example representing a man carrying a sword preserves its lamp, which is c. 7.62 cm long and provides an approximate size for the lamp used with this pricket (2).

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The monkey is unique among preserved lampstand figurines. In all other examples, the lamp carrier is a human figure, such as a naked Dionysos carrying grapes, nude athletes, or cloaked men, presumably servants or guards (3). Although the provenance for the Harvard pricket is undocumented, other figural lampstands come from the eastern Mediterranean—Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople—and the closest stylistic parallels are dated to the sixth to seventh centuries (4).

NOTES:

1. Compare with other stands in which a figure holds the pricket in M. Xanthopoulou, Les lampes en bronze à l’époque paléochrétienne, Bibliothèque de l’Antiquité tardive 16 (Turnhout, 2010) 231-33, nos. CD 1.001-1.003 (pedestal base) and CD 1.007 (interlocking base).

2. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art Third to Seventh Century, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1977) no. 320; L. Bouras and M. G. Parani, Lighting in Early Byzantium (Washington, DC, 2008) 84, no. 24; and Xanthopoulou 1997 (supra 1) 234, no. CD 1.008.

3. Age of Spirituality 1977 (supra 2) nos. 319-20; and Xanthopoulou 1997 (supra 1) 31-32 and 231-32, nos. CD 1.001-1.004 and CD 1.007-1.008.

4. Compare Age of Spirituality 1977 (supra 2) nos. 319-20; and Bouras and Parani 2008 (supra 2) 84, no. 24.

Diliana Angelova

Harvard Art Museums