Terracotta lamp in the form of an elephant's head

Unknown

3rd century BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

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.

Artist

Unknown

Date

3rd century BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek, Sicilian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Albert Gallatin, 1926