Temple Lamp (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
This magnificent plantlike lamp once illuminated the dark interior of a Hindu temple in southwest India. Oil or clarified butter fueled wicks placed in the scalloped recesses of four radiating basins, producing rings of flickering light around their tapered spires. Emerging from a partially opened lotus blossom, a flame-shaped finial crowns the central shaft. A profusion of small sculpted figures encircles the shaft below: exuberant dancers, four Hindu deities, and fantastic leonine creatures that perch on elephant heads and support other figures. The square base, decorated on one side with a frieze of lions and elephants, carries a modern inscription identifying the temple to which the lamp once belonged.
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