5th-7th century AD. A bronze polykandelion comprising a suspension hook and four short chains supporting an openwork disc with six radiating tau-shaped arms and central void; four further extension chains supporting a broad openwork ring with expanding-arm cross and central monogram (N?CA ?"). 1.1 kg, 32.5cm diameter at base (12 3/4"). Property of a London gentleman; previously acquired on the UK art market in the 1990s. Oil-filled glass vessels once hung from the round openings in this flat, circular hanging lamp or polykandelion. Such lamps cast beautiful shadows on walls, magnifying the designs of their disks on walls and floors. The shadows from this lamp, which is decorated with crosses radiating from the centre, would have emphasised its Christian symbolism. Enormous hanging lamps were used to light the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which the poet and courtier Paul the Silentiary described in 563 AD: 'Thus is everything clothed in beauty … no words are sufficient to describe the illumination in the evening: you might say that some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church with light.' Fine condition.