Festooned Sarcophagus with Erotes and Marine Motifs

Roman art

This slab fragment was originally part of a sarcophagus of which other sections are presently part of the Borghese Collection (Portico, CCXXXIII specular to this one – and Entrance Hall, LI). The composition presents two putti with plump, childlike bodies holding a garland with bunches of grapes, pomegranates, apples, pine cones, corymbs, berries and other less characterised fruits. In the lunette above the garland is a third putto riding a sea panther, heading to the left. 

The typology corresponds to a series of garland-decorated sarcophagi produced between the first and the fourth century CE; the marine retinue used to decorate the lunette is one of the most common themes used in Roman funerary sculpture, appearing on more than four hundred sarcophagi and which can be read not only as a simple decorative element but as an intentional reference to afterlife bliss. This fragment might be among those transferred in 1671 together with other statues and bas-reliefs from Villa Pinciana to Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio to serve as garden decoration, and then later relocated to Villa Pinciana before Giuseppe Gozzani, Minister of the House of Borghese in charge of the display of the new family collection, entrusted its restoration to Antonio D’Este in 1828.

Object details

Commentary

This slab fragment, set in a modern frame, presents two putti with childlike, plump bodies and soft facial features framed by wavy curls. The two hold up a garland as they stand with their inner legs placed almost in profile, while the outer legs are moved to the side and slightly flexed; their outer arms are raised holding the voluminous encarpus, symmetrically structured and hanging at the ends from two cuffs, where a vine leaf covers a composition with bunches of grapes, pomegranates, apples, pine cones, corymbs, berries and other less characterised fruits. In the garland lunette is a third Erote riding a sea panther, heading to the left. Erotes, often depicted in the form of winged children, are a recurring motif in Hellenistic art, but also often appear in Roman art in the form of Erotes, Cupids or Amorini, as in this case.

The depicted scene is a section of a larger frieze originally part of a sarcophagus, of which other portions are preserved (Portico, CCXXXIII; Entrance Hall, LI), as can be seen in a drawing by Ernst Eichler (Rumpf 1939, p. 4, fig. 9).

The present fragment might be one of those transferred in 1671 together with other statues and bas-reliefs from Villa Pinciana to Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio to be used as garden decoration: Venturini’s second half of the seventeenth century engravings of the Garden Fountain of the family’s palazzo in fact contain as many as five reliefs with garland-bearing cherubs and marine-retinue characters similar to those presently considered (Falda 1691, tables 11-12). At a later date, however, the reliefs returned to Villa Pinciana, and in 1828 Giuseppe Gozzani, Minister of the House of Borghese in charge of the display of the new family collection, entrusted a pair of slabs with Erotes and festoons – perhaps one of these presently considered – to Antonio D’Este for restoration (Moreno, Sforzini 1987, p. 360). Reliefs that were then displayed in Room VIII, where the present slab section remained until its final placement in the portico.

This typology belongs to a long series of garland-decorated sarcophagi, characterised by a festoon motif relief, the earliest examples of which may date back to as early as the Julio-Claudian period (see Caffarelli sarcophagus, Brandeburg 1978, pp. 305ff). But it is only from the late Trajan - early Adrian age that a steady and continuous production began, also influenced by garlanded altars (most recently Herdejürgen 1996). Specifically, in the context of Roman artistic production, the present iconographic theme recurs on several of sarcophagi, commissioned by urban patrons, and characterised by Erotes holding up garlands with marine motifs used to complement the encarpi.

Examples of garland-bearing Erotes are attested in Roman art on cinerary urns from the Claudian period onwards, as attested by the Via Latina example now in the Louvre (Sinn 1987, p. 107 no. 64 table 20c-d), although it is during the Hadrian and especially Antonine periods this repertoire became most common (on garland-bearing Erotes, Stuveras 1969, pp. 71-74). Among the most frequently attested motifs used to decorate the lunettes are small figurative scenes with Dionysian themes, mythological episodes, single objects or, as in this case, figures of the marine thiasos. The motif of Erotes riding monstrous sea creatures can also be found on non-garlanded sarcophagi, such as the Hadrian age Peleus and Thetis sarcophagus at Villa Albani (Rumpf 1939, p. 4, nos. 10-16; Sichtermann 1970, p. 232, no. 8, fig. 27; 236, no. 12, figs. 32-33; Koch, Sichtermann 1982, pp. 195 ff).

The iconography of the marine thiasos, one of the most frequently used themes in Roman funerary sculpture, attested on more than four hundred sarcophagi, is to be read not only as a simple decorative element but as an intentional reference to an idyllic afterlife (Parodo 2018).

From a technical and stylistic standpoint, the sculptural decoration of the Borghese sarcophagus is characterised by a scarcely protruding relief, with sporadic use of the drill in the definition of the hair and undefined irises and pupils suggesting this piece could be a product of Hadrian or early Antonine age.

Jessica Clementi