Columnar Sarcophagus with the Labours of Hercules, front

Roman art

This relief, originally the front of a sarcophagus, is of unknown provenance and was walled into the east facade of the Palazzina, known as the Prospettiva, along with the back 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 back, on two facing walls in Room II. Six twisted columns with composite capitals divide the space into five compartments, filled with five of the twelve labours that Eurystheus imposed on Hercules. From the left, the hero defeating the Nemean lion; the nine-headed Hydra of Lerna; the wild boar of Mount Erymanthus; capturing the Ceryneian hind and bringing it to Eurystheus and the birds from the Stymphalian marshes. 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 relief with ‘a few of Hercules’s labours’ was the front panel of a sarcophagus, of unknown provenance, and was walled with the back (VC) into the east facade of the Palazzina, called the Prospettiva, as noted by Montelatici. It was known at least 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 reliefs were then displayed in Room II, paired with lids and acroterial masks with personifications of the Winds from other sarcophagi (LXXX).

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

The spaces between the columns are filled with the twelve labours imposed by Eurystheus on Hercules, following the traditional order reported by the Pseudo Apollodorus (2, 5, 1–12). Five are on the front: the hero, still young, defeating the Nemean lion; the nine-headed Hydra of Lerna, one of whose heads was immortal and flattened by the hero; the wild boar of Mount Erymanthus; capturing the Ceryneian hind and bringing it to Eurystheus and the man-eating birds from the Stymphalian marshes. The labours carried out by the hero as a mature adult continue on the back (VC) and on the short sides (now lost), which would have depicted Cerberus and the apples of the Hesperides. As currently restored, the front is consistent with the original as documented in the sixteenth-century drawings.

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 Roman 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 was 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 could restore order to a world threatened by monsters, provide humankind with what had been unavailable and cross 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