Polycandelon with Crosses

500–700

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301

Round flat hanging lamps, or polycandela, were lit by oil-filled glass vessels hung from the round holes in their designs. Paul the Silentiary in 563 described the effect of huge hanging lamps that lit the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople: “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.”

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

References

Title: Polycandelon with Crosses
Date: 500–700
Culture: Byzantine
Medium: Copper alloy
Dimensions: Ht. with chain 14 in. (35.5cm)
Diam. of plate: 10 7/16 (26.5cm)
Classification: Metalwork-Copper alloy
Credit Line: Gift of Miriam N. Rosen, 2002
Object Number: 2002.483.7
Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

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