Top: Clay lamps with reliefs, but without painting. The one on the left described the rape of Europa; to the right Chiron teaching Apollo to play the lyre. The piece resting on the ground (shown from two angles) depicts a monkey-like figure, which Carafa identifies as trying to read a book, the wick’s hole where the feet should be. Bottom: In the centre is a little pot in the shape of a foot, which Carafa says was “consecrated to the Isíac religion” and which functioned as “a vow against gout, offered to Serapis”. To either side are two views of a pot (which Carafa believes to be lamp) with “turtleback” shape, “beautifully painted with the figure of an old satyr lying, almost asleep, and of some animals”.
Featured on PDR in the collection Curiosities from the Museum of Giovanni Carafa (1778)
These fantastic depictions of various Roman antiquities are sourced from Alcuni monumenti del Museo Carrafa (1778), a wonderful catalogue of objects once found in the private museum of 18th-century antiquities collector Giovanni Carafa, the Duke of Noja (now called Noicattaro, a town near Bari in southern Italy ). Born in 1715, Carafa studied grammar and literature but soon developed an interest in scientific subjects, mainly mathematics. Around 1738 he was appointed lecturer of Optics and Mathematics at the University of Naples, and there he continued to explore his interests in the natural sciences, especially geology and mineralogy. He soon began collecting archaeological and numismatic pieces concerning southern Italy and established a small museum (which would become part of the collection of Museo di Capodimonte in…
Also appearing in the collection…
Clay lamps with reliefs and a pot in the shape of a foot.
Artist
Date
1778
From
Alcuni monumenti del Museo Carrafa
Source
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