Columnar Sarcophagus with the Labours of Hercules, back

Roman art

This frieze, from the back of a sarcophagus, is of unknown provenance and was walled into the east facade of the palazzina, known as the Prospettiva, along with the front of the same sarcophagus in the sixteenth century. It was later moved to storage. Restored by Antonio D’Este and Massimiliano Laboureur in 1826, it was then hung, again with the front, on two facing walls in Room II. The space is divided into five compartments by six twisted columns with composite capitals. The compartments are filled with five of the twelve labours imposed on Hercules by Eurystheus. From the left, the adult, bearded hero fights with the Cretan Bull, captures and yokes the mares of King Diomedes of Thrace, takes the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, fights a sea monster and, lastly, fights a centaur. This iconographic theme enjoyed particular popularity in the Roman world, especially on Attic and Asiatic sarcophagi. The labours of the civilising hero alluded to the hard work of the deceased while living, earning him eternal glory and immortality.

Object details

Commentary

This frieze with ‘a few of Hercules’s labours’ was the back panel of a sarcophagus, of unknown provenance, that was walled with the front panel (LXXIX) into the east facade of the Palazzina, called the Prospettiva, as noted by Montelatici. It was known since the sixteenth century, as attested by drawings made by Giovanni Antonio Dosio and Guglielmo della Porta (Hülsen 1933, p. 24, pl. LXVII; Gramberg 1964, p. 34, no. 9). Both reliefs were later moved into storage in the Villa, where they remained until 1826, the period of the installation of the new collection in the Casino, which had been stripped by the massive sale to Napoleon Bonaparte. At that time, Evasio Gozzani arranged for them to be restored by Massimiliano Laboureur or Antonio D’Este. The friezes were then displayed in Room II with lids and acroterial masks with personifications of the Winds from other sarcophagi (LXXX).

The space is divided into five compartments by six twisted columns with composite capitals. Above, acanthus leaves decorate the space between the arches.  An elaborate cornice with Lesbian cyma and ovules lends unity to the architectural framework, alluding to the scaenae frons of Roman theatres, while the base is decorated with scenes of hunting in a rocky landscape, bookended with telamones on the corners.

The spaces between the columns are filled with the twelve labours imposed on Hercules by Eurystheus. Five on the front, when the hero was still young (see cat. LXXIX), and five on the back, in which the hero, now adult and bearded, fights the Cretan bull, captures and yokes the mares of King Diomedes of Thrace, takes the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, fights a sea monster and, lastly, fights a centaur. The short sides, now lost, must have been decorated with Cerberus and the apples of the Hesperides. As currently restored, the relief is consistent with the original as documented in the sixteenth-century drawings, with the exception of the last two labours, which are the result of a modern restoration.

The dodekathlon was one of the most popular themes for funerary monuments produced in Italy and the provinces in the middle of the Imperial period, as attested by the group of metropolitan frieze sarcophagi dated between 150 and 180 CE (for example, the Torlonia sarcophagus, inv. MT 422; De Lachenal 2020), the oldest of which might be the one from Velletri (Jongste 1992, pp. 22, 39ff). The subject was also very popular for Asiatic sarcophagi. The current panel was, in fact, part of a columnar sarcophagus, a well-known type that is thought to have flourished in Docimium for about a century, between 160 and 260/270 CE, due to the fine quality of the white marble and skill of the local carvers, and in great demand especially in Rome (Wiegartz 1965; Koch 2011; Strocka 2017; on the popularity of the type among the elite during the Antonine period, see Thomas 2011).

The success of this iconographic theme is closely linked to the mythical figure of Hercules, a civilising hero who restored order to a world threatened by monsters, provided humankind with what had been unavailable and crossed the threshold of Hades, winning immortality.  The labours of Hercules therefore alluded to the hard work of the deceased while alive, having courageously faced the duties of his own destiny, embarking upon a virtuous path to eternal fame (Grassinger 2007, p. 116).

 The richness of the architectural and decorative elements that frame the scenes, modelled on theatre sets, is comparable to works made between 160 and 170 CE (Wiegartz 1965, p. 27; Waelkens 1982, p. 76; Jongste 1992, p. 122; Strocka 2017, p. 84) and, even more so, the monument in the Torlonia Collection, which is one of the best preserved (inv. MT420, Dodero 2020).

Jessica Clementi