Hanukkah Lamp

This unusually shaped lamp depicts the mythological scene of the Judgment of Paris. In this story, the shepherd Paris has been commanded by Zeus, through the god Hermes, to decide which of three goddesses is the fairest: Hera, Aphrodite, or Athena. The winner is to receive the golden apple of Ens, or Strife. Paris chooses beauty and love over wisdom and power, and hands the apple to Aphrodite. Later, under love's influence, Paris steals another man's wife, the beautiful Helen, thereby sparking the Trojan War. Paris is depicted on the lamp seated on the left with the god Hermes behind him. He has just handed the golden apple to Aphrodite.
The inclusion of the Judgment of Paris on a Hanukkah lamp is enigmatic and must be considered as purely decorative. The prototype of the backplate has been identified as the plaque on a German gunpowder box from the late sixteenth century. It is difficult to determine when the Hanukkah lamps were created; an antique plaque might have been used at any time to make sand-cast copies. The earliest publication of a lamp of this type occurred in 1903 with an example from the Guggenheim Collection, so the lamp type is probably at least as old as the turn of the twentieth century. The quality and height of the relief work on the Jewish Museum lamp, and the depth of the hollows on the reverse, suggest that the lamp is earlier than the Guggenheim lamp, and reasonably close to the lost-wax-cast model from which the backplate was derived. A second type of lamp with the same shape, presumably also derived from the plaque on a gunpowder box, depicts a scene of Greek warriors fighting over a suit of armor.