CATALOGUE

       LUCERNA     
Portus Ilicitanus (Santa Pola, Alicante)

Moulded ceramics
h: 11.8 cm; a: 8.4 cm; e: 2.8 cm
Roman culture
1st century AD

 

Lucerna (oil lamp) with a stem separated from the disc by a narrow moulded area, with elongated scrolls and a triangular-shaped spout. Decoration: to the left of the field is an old, bearded shepherd, leaning slightly forward and leaning on a staff. He wears a short tunic covered at the back with an animal skin knotted around his neck. To the right of him stands a flock of goats and sheep, two of which are trying to reach the leaves of the tree that completes the scene, where a bird is watching the nest with its young.
The piece belongs to the Campanian workshop of ROMANENSIS and corresponds to the Bailey IA type.
The theme reflects the Alexandrian-influenced taste for the idyllic and bucolic during the time of the Julio-Claudian emperors, fostered by the popular popularity of literary characters such as the shepherds Titurus in Virgil's Bucolics and Faustulus in connection with the myth of the founding of Rome.
C.S.: 4802
BAILEY, D.M., 1980.
CARRETERO VAQUERO, S., 1989
Unpublished.