Terracotta lamp in the form of an elephant's head

Greek, Sicilian

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 171

The campaigns of Alexander the Great brought Greece into contact with animals from India and the East that the Greeks had not known of previously. The elephant became a popular representation on Hellenistic coins. With the Carthaginian influence on Sicily during the Punic Wars of the third century B.C., elephants, usually depicted as war animals, also became common in Sicilian art. Traces of the original black glaze can be seen on the surface of this lamp.

Terracotta lamp in the form of an elephant's head, Terracotta, Greek, Sicilian

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