Candelabrum with figure of a warrior

Photogallery

Candelabrum with figure of a warrior
Candelabrum with figure of a warrior
Room III. Bronzes

The scene of the Etruscan banquet was illuminated using candelabra, to which the candles were fixed laterally with horizontal prongs, as can be seen in the paintings in the Golini tomb in Orvieto.
This and a second twin candelabrum were found in Vulci on the Cuccumella, near Abbadia, during the excavations carried out by Prince Luciano and Alexandrine Bonaparte of Canino in the years 1828-1829. The summit is adorned with a small bronze depicting a warrior with weapons and tunic, in partial heroic nudity, and holding by the reins a rearing horse protected by a phalera.
It is possible that these two candelabra depicted the Dioskouri, warriors and athletes, but also ancient gods of light along with Selene and Helios, which would appear consistent with the function of the candelabrum and the related funerary symbology; since one of the two brothers was mortal, Zeus allowed him to alternate between the underworld and Olympus.
Comparable with the production of small Etruscan bronzes during the late classical age, it may be attributed to a workshop in Vulci.