Sarcophagus decorated with festoons and Nereids carrying Achilles’ weapons; left side decorated with festoon of fruit and a fantastical animal
This fragment was the left side of a sarcophagus numerous other components of which have also survived (Salone XXXVII – the mirror image of this one – and Salone, IIL, Room VIII, CCXXVII, CCXXXVII). The lower part of the scene features a garland of fruit and flowers, while the lunette contains a fantastical creature, specifically a griffin with the head of a lion and the tail of a sea serpent, oriented right.
This iconographic type is part of a series of sarcophagi decorated with garlands that were produced between the first and fourth centuries CE and were especially popular during the Hadrianic and Antonine periods. The marine procession (an allusion to the bliss of the afterworld) represented in the lunette was one of the most popular themes in Roman funerary sculpture.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
white marble with blue veining
Dimensions
height 52 cm, width 60 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection (before 1671)?; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese, 1833 C., p. 43, no. 29. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1995 - Paola Mastropasqua
Commentary
This sarcophagus fragment, set on a non-ancient base, is decorated with a large, symmetrical festoon hung from two cuff-like elements on the sides followed by grape leaves bookending a string of bunches of grapes, pomegranates, apples, pinecones, corymbs, berries and other generic fruit. The lunette hosts a fantastical creature, specifically a griffin with the head of a lion and the tail of a sea serpent, oriented right.
The fragment was the short left side of a sarcophagus, the right side of which, with a mirror image of the same imagery, is displayed in the Salone (XXXVII) as a base, while three parts of the front – depicting the Homeric theme of Nereids carrying Achilles’ weapons – are on view in the Salone (IIL) and Room VIII (CCXXXVII and CCXXVII), where they are also resting on non-ancient bases.
The relief is part of a large group of sarcophagi decorated with sea creatures and produced for urban clients over a long period stretching from the late Hadrianic period to the late fourth century. The popularity of marine subjects on funerary monuments can be explained by the very nature of the imagery, which is especially suited to symmetrical, decorative compositions, and the value of the theme in a funerary context, as a clear reference to the bliss and peace of the afterworld (Engelmann 1973, pp. 60–65; Guj 2010; Parodo 2018).
Jessica Clementi
Bibliography
- G. B. Falda, Le fontane di Roma nelle piazze, e luoghi publici della città, III, Roma 1691, tavv. 11-12.
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, p. 41.
- A. Rumpf, Die Meerwesen auf den antiken Sarkophagreliefs, Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs V, 1, Berlin 1939, p. 1, n. 1, tav. 1.
- R. Calza, Catalogo del Gabinetto fotografico Nazionale, Galleria Borghese, Collezione degli oggetti antichi, Roma 1957, p. 17, n. 182.
- J. Engemann, Untersuchungen zur Sepulkralsymbolik der späteren römischen Kaiserzeit, Münster 1973, pp. 60-65.
- P. Moreno, Museo e Galleria Borghese, La collezione archeologica, Roma 1980, p. 9.
- P. Moreno, S. Staccioli, Le collezioni della Galleria Borghese, Milano 1981, p. 102.
- G. Koch, H. Sichtermann, Römische Sarkophage, Munchen 1982, p. 233 n. 62.
- H. Herdejürgen, Stadtrömische und italische Girlandensarkophage, 1. Die Sarkophage des 1 . und 2. Jahrhunderts. Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs, VI, 2, 1, Berlin 1996, p. 122, n. 70, tav. 37, 1-2; 40, 1; 43, 1-2.
- H. Herdejürgen, Antike und moderne Reliefs in der Villa Borghese, in “Archäologischen Anzeiger”, 4, 1997, pp. 480-503, in part. p. 491.
- P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 46, n.4b.
- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, pp. 108-109, n. 71.
- M. Guj, Sarcofago con thiasos marino, in Palazzo Colonna. Appartamenti. Sculture antiche e dall’antico, a cura di M. G. Picozzi, Roma 2010, pp. 231-234, n. 40.
- C. Parodo, La morte per acqua. Iconografia di un thiasos marino su un frammento di sarcofago inedito del Museo Civico “Giovanni Marongiu”, Cabras (OR), in “Layers” 3, 2018, pp. 1-20.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/01008336, P. Moreno 1976; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2021
