© Museu de Badalona
Omeka ID 1902
Ciutat romana de Baetulo. Darrera ambulatori
Roman world

lamp with erotic scene

MB 3816

Object type
oil lamp
Production date
1 / 50
Fabric
-
Museum
Museu de Badalona
Culture
Roman world
Discovery location
Ciutat romana de Baetulo. Darrera ambulatori
Materials
pottery
Township
Badalona (Europa, Espanya, Catalunya, Barcelona, Barcelonès)
Technique
moulding
Where is it?
Exposició permanent
Dimensions
11,5 x 8,3 cm
Description
Dressel / Lamboglia 11 B scroll lamp. The fabric is beige with traces of orange-brown varnish. The decoration is an erotic scene depicting a fellatio. A woman, the fellatrix, with her knees on the bed, performs fellatio on a grotesque being, a satyr, who is playing a lyre. The satyrs were the companions of the god Bacchus and in this case they represent low human passions. The female character has bare buttocks and her breasts are covered with the strophium or fascia pectoralis, which is associated with prostitutes, and even more so in cases, like this one, in which it is intuited that she is wearing a wig. Lamps with erotic scenes are numerous in the Roman world. Some of the most frequent scenes (symplegma), as in this case, take place on a bed (lectus cubicularis).