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Lamps: Eagle & Hare, Hercules, Winged Victory  - Herculaneum


                Piroli 1804 Copper Plate Engraving

An Original Historical Print from HistoryOnPaper

(Below is a rough translation from the French of the engraving's description.)

VOLUME (TOME) VI  --  PLATE 3


FIG. I. Fractured two-wick lamp. An eagle tears a hare on which it has just swooped down. This emblem is found on several medals of the Greek cities of Italy and Sicily.
FIG. II. We see in this lamp Hercules, conqueror of the dragon who guarded the golden apples of the garden of the Hesperides: with one foot he crushes the knot with which the monster has entwined him, and he chokes it with one hand. The prodigious strength of the hero is skillfully developed in this beautiful attitude. We find the same action expressed on several medals.
FIG. III and IV. This curious lamp is a monument to the ancient use of gifts, which goes back to King Titus-Tatius, or at least to Numa. We made reciprocal wishes; they sent each other presents (strenoe) different from those called Xenia, mutual gifts of hospitality. These marks of benevolence took place, as still today, on the first of January; the second day was bad; the third was somehow the most solemn; it was that where sacrifices were offered, where public vows were made for the prosperity of the emperors. These feasts were prolonged during most of the month, and were designated by kalendes of January. In more recent times, the Christians, who had preserved the use of gifts, added to them diversions consisting of feasts and disguises under the dress of women, and under the mask of different animals, which were called vetulam and cervudum facere. It is from this that the origin of the carnival is derived, the follies of which, beginning in the month of January, are connected with other extravagances borrowed from the ancients. The main figure of the lamp is a winged Victory, holding a palm and a shield, on which we read the inscription ANNUM NOVUM FAUSTUM FELICEM MIHI, may the new year be happy for me! formula used, and the one with which we greeted each other reciprocally on this feast day. This salutation was among the omens, happy ones gathered by hearing, omina; those that struck the sight were called monstra. By the word MIHI, we see that our lamp was a gift that the person gave to himself. It is also good to observe that, in the wishes and in the prayers for happiness, each one used to name himself first. On the bottom of the medallion are strewn different objects that were offered as reciprocal gifts at New Year's Eve. The large leaf appears to represent a fan (flabellum); lower down is a date (caryota) enclosed in its pod; a medal on which is represented the sign of good faith or concord, two united hands and two serpents forming a caduceus; another medal, Winged Victory; on the other side of the figure, a third medal with the double face of Janus, divinity who presided over the new year and the first month called Januarius (January) from his name; an object that cannot be discerned; finally, a kind of packet which seems to represent a mass of dried figs (caricoe). These figs were transported in earthen vessels, of which the object in question appears to have the form, according to Martial's expression, torta meta. We actually learn from passages collected in the poets, that the customary gifts were dried figs, dates, walnuts (and under the name of walnuts, we must understand several kinds of fruit), finally currencies. Gifts of money did not only take place between individuals; they were made to emperors and princes, from whom similar gifts were received from hand to hand. Subsequently, the senate had the coins offered to the emperor in a golden peg by the prefect of the city. Honorius fixed these presents at a pound of gold, and the emperor distributed to magistrates and persons of distinction other coins or medals, most often minted in his image. One will find lamps similar to ours, reported by Bellori and Passeri.

FIG. V. Single wick lamp. Winged Victory, holding palm and crown, and posing on globe; this is how Victory is usually represented on medals.



Read Historical Note Below.


Type of Print       Lithograph - Wood Engraving - Steel Engraving - Copper Engraving - Photogravure
Printing Year      1804
Artist - Engraver - Publisher      Piroli- Piroli or Leblanc -  P. Piranesi      Printed in Paris
Print Size (Approx)     8  inches  X  11  inches             IMAGE(S) BELOW MAY BE ENLARGED  TO SHOW DETAIL
Paper weight/type     Thin - Medium - Heavy - Other
Reverse side     Blank - Related text/pictures -  Unrelated text/pictures 
Condition      Excellent - Very Good - Good - Fair - Poor (but of historical interest)  
Description    Some expected age & foxing;  a great print with only minor surface faults and handling wear;       Please inspect image
Notes   


This Is An Original Print from History-On-Paper

HISTORICAL INFORMATION:  This copper plate print (engraving) is from Tommaso


Piroli's (Italian engraver, 1752-1824)  Antiquités d'Herculanum gravées par Th. Piroli avec


une explication par S-Ph Caude, 1804-1806, Paris, F et P Piranesi, T.


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Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town, located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Like the nearby city of Pompeii, Herculaneum is famous as one of the few ancient cities to be preserved nearly intact, as the ash that blanketed the town protected it against looting and the elements. Although less known than Pompeii today, it was the first and, for a long time, the only discovered Vesuvian city (in 1709). Pompeii was revealed in 1748 and identified in 1763. Unlike Pompeii, the mainly pyroclastic material that covered Herculaneum carbonized and preserved more wooden objects such as roofs, beds, and doors, as well as other organic-based materials such as food and papyrus.


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Volumes 1 - 3 of this classic work on Herculaneum contained plates of art work (pictures) found at the site.

Volume 4 contained engravings of discovered Busts and Reliefs that were created in bronze.  

Volume 5 was of statues found.

Volume 6  contained 50 engravings by Piroli of ancient lamps found in the excavations. 

Herculaneum; a town in Italy which was destroyed along with Pompeii by Mt Vesuvious’ eruption in 79ce. Damaged by an earthquake in A.D. 63, it was completely buried, along with Pompeii Pompeii, ancient city of S Italy, a port near Naples and at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius, by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Before the earthquake, it was a popular Roman resort and residential town with fine villas. The first discovery of ruins was made in 1709, and excavations have continued since. Important early finds were the sumptuous so-called Villa of the Papyri (with a large library, and bronze and marble statues), a basilica with fine murals, and a theater. The modern towns of Resina and Portici are on the site.

CONDITION:    Please INSPECT PHOTO. May be Enlarged for viewing.

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This is an original print, not a reproduction.  

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Item #0823-1519