5th-7th century AD. A bronze polycandelon hanging lamp comprising: a suspension hook and short chain supporting a ring with pierced dentilled edge, central monogram 'NAC[?]'; three longer chains attached to a ring with central rosette and eight round sockets attached to the outer frame. Cf. similar, less elaborate example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2002.483.7. 750 grams, 73cm (28 3/4"). From the private collection of a Canadian gentleman; from his father's collection formed 1965-1990. Oil-filled glass vessels once hung from the round openings in this flat, circular hanging lamp, or polycandelon. Such lamps cast beautiful shadows on walls, magnifying the designs of their disks on walls and floors. The shadows from this lamp, which is decorated with crosses radiating from the centre, would have emphasised its Christian symbolism. Enormous hanging lamps were used to light the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which the poet and courtier Paul the Silentiary described in 563 AD: 'Thus is everything clothed in beauty … no words are sufficient to describe the illumination in the evening: you might say that some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church with light.'

Fine condition.