Votive lamp; Cordoba, XVIII century.

Votive lamp; Cordoba, XVIII century.
Embossed and chiseled silver.
Presents punches.
Measurements: 55 x 21 cm.
Weight: 706 g.
Votive lamp in chiseled and embossed silver with floral motifs in the upper flared body and in the lower bowl, worked in the form of an inverted dome topped with a pinnacle. The votive lamps, also called Santísimo, have an extensive history and fulfilled a double function, of worship and of offering to a divinity in gratitude or fulfillment of a promise. Tradition dictates that these oil lamps, the work of silversmiths, goldsmiths and sometimes artisans of different disciplines, burn and illuminate in perpetuity the Blessed Sacrament or the venerated image in the chapels and altars of the temples to keep alive the devotion of the faithful. Endowed with ingenious technical solutions and decorated with refinement, they have embellished majestic Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque cathedrals. The use of votive offerings, deposited in sacred places for ritual reasons and to appease supernatural forces, dates back to the Neolithic period.