Sarcophagus Lid with Amazons in Troy and Acroteria with personifications of the Winds (not original)

Roman art

This lid was mentioned, without the acroteria, in 1650, set in the Facciata Grande facing the Theatre inside the second enclosure of the garden of the Villa. In 1826, it was listed among the works chosen to be restored and placed inside the rooms after the Napoleonic acquisition, at which time the acroteria were likely added. These bear faces depicting personifications of the Winds and are not original to the lid.

The long, figurative frieze, bordered on either end by arched pillars, is a continuous narrative depicting two subsequent scenes, each of which is divided into two groups. The first describes the arrival of the Amazons in Troy after Hector’s death; the second when they don their armour to join in the battle.

Both the acroteria and the frieze may be dated to the mid second century CE.    

Object details

Commentary

In 1650, Manilli mentioned the relief in the second enclosure, set in the Facciata Grande facing the Theatre: ‘bas relief with many small figures of soldiers, some victorious, others defeated, and with many women made captive’ (p. 153). Montelatici confirmed this location and offered a detailed description of the figures (1700, pp. 87–88). In 1826, it was mentioned in a letter by Minister Evasio Gozzani addressed to the Prince Camillo Borghese, listed among the works chosen to be restored and placed inside the rooms of the Villa, newly furnished after the Napoleonic acquisitions (B. 7457: Moreno, Sforzini 1987, pp. 352–353). Finally, Nibby mentioned it in 1832, placed atop the sarcophagus depicting Heracles’s feats, in its present location in Room 2 (pp. 71–72).

Winckelmann was the first to recognise the Amazons, come to assist the Trojans, in the figurative frieze decorating the lid (Winckelmann 1821, pp. 184–187). To the left is a scene depicting Andromache sitting with young Astyanax in her arms, flanked by two handmaids and elderly Hecuba. The woman is sitting on a rock; she is wearing a chiton and a lavishly pleated himation, or cape, gathered on her legs. A shield, likely belonging to Hector, is resting against her right leg. She is wearing sandals and her head is bare. The child is naked; his right hand is resting on her shoulder and the left is stroking her cheek. The handmaids are also wearing chitons, himation and sandals; they are depicted in the act of lamentation, one hand sadly resting on their face. Hecuba joins the grieving group from the right, wearing a tunic and a thick, double mantle, her hair covered by a veil. She advances slowly, raising both hands: the left drawn to her chest, the right extended towards the other woman.

Next come Queen Penthesilea and an Amazon armed with spear and pelta – the crescent shield – appearing before the Trojan king Priam. The queen’s weapons and the shield are laid on the ground in sign of respect for the sovereign, who is holding a sceptre. The queen is wearing boots and a short tunic fastened around her waist that leaves her legs bare; her hair is gathered in a bun on top of her head. She is approaching the king with her right hand held out, while her left hand is holding the bridle of the horse following her. An Amazon with the same hairstyle and similarly attired is following the queen’s steed, a pelta in her left hand, while her right is resting on a spear; her left leg is slightly bent. Priam is wearing a Phrygian cap, a tunic with sleeves, a mantle fastened on his right shoulder, trousers and shoes. He is clasping the Amazon queen’s right hand and appears to be bowing his head in greeting. His retinue is composed of four bearded Trojans who are taking part in the meeting. Like Priam, they are wearing chitons with sleeves, mantles, trousers and shoes. The last two are also wearing Phrygian caps. The first is cautiously raising his right hand, a round shield resting on his right knee. The second, who Robert speculates may be identified with Antenor because of his prominent position, is holding the remains of a spear in his left hand, while his chin is resting on the right hand (Robert 1890, pp. 66–68). The fourth soldier is holding a spear and pelta in his left hand, and raising his right in admiration for Penthesilea, towards whom his head his turned. A little to a side, grieving, is a young Trojan, similarly clad and wearing a Phrygian pileus on his head, whom Robert identifies with Paris. A seated woman, possibly Hecuba or even Andromache, is grieving as she holds an urn containing Hector’s ashes, her left hand resting on the container. This woman, whose grief is shared by a bare-chested female figure, is comforted by a young boy who gently strokes her face. Helbig offers two different interpretations of this scene: according to the first, the seated woman is Hecuba with young Polydorus, her youngest son; the second postulates that these are Andromache herself and Paris (1913, p. 239, no. 1543). Separated by a stone arch, the seven Amazons are taking up their arms before the city gates, possibly the Skaian Gate recalled by Homer, to join in the battle. The first is probably Penthesilea, wearing the same costume as in the first scene and with an oval shield on her left arm that one of her comrades is adjusting for her. At her feet lies a crested helm. The women present the typical military attributes found in traditional iconography: the crescent shield, the pelta, the double bitted axe and the helm. The last warrior is depicted in the act of mounting a rampant horse held by a comrade. Two stone pillars ending in an arch define the confines of the slab, while a third, made of bricks and likely depicting the city gate, rises beside the seated, grieving figure. These structures were plausibly intended to evoke an urban setting in the city of Troy.

This myth opened the Aethiopis, an epic attributed to Arctinus of Miletus and most likely composed between the eighth and seventh centuries BCE. This composition, which narrated the Trojan cycle in five books written in dactylic hexameter verse, is mentioned by other ancient authors. The subject was later tackled in the first four books of the Posthomerica, a late-imperial age work written by Quinto Smirneo. The iconographic subject of the Amazons became popular in funerary works, especially the representazion of the Amazonomachy, in the early second century CE. According to Russenberger, this had the dual significance of celebrating the myth while affirming the representational value of the deceased (Russenberger 2015, pp. 96–112; 340–350). The depiction of the arrival of the warriors in the city of Troy is rare, and was presumably intended as an introduction to the decorative apparatus of the original sarcophagus.

Flanking the lid are two (not original) acroteria depicting personifications of the Winds. The faces are full, with prominent cheek bones and protruding chins and noses. The eyes are large, with marked lids and carved pupils. Nestled in the hair composed of wavy, unruly locks, are two small wings just above the forehead. In Roman iconography, the Anemoi, sons of the Titan Astraeus, the god of dusk, and Eos, goddess of the dawn, are seen as entities capable of transcending the barrier between life and death and overcoming the distinction between mortal and immortal (Coppola 2010, p. 119). As a consequence, these subjects appear in funerary art for their function of transporting souls in their celestial ascension. In a famous episode recounted by Homer in the Iliad, it was the joint action of the winds Borea and Zephirus that stoked the flames of the pire upon which the body of Patroclus had been placed for his funeral ritual (Iliade XXIII, vv. 193–218).

From the description of the lid offered by Minister Evasio Gozzani in 1826 – ‘we shall have the bas relief of Priam and Penthesilea in the Prospettiva diligently washed, and we shall place it as decoration inside the Casino Nobile’ – we assume that the figurative relief did not have the acroteria yet, and that these were added between 1826 and 1832 during the conservation carried out in view of the lid’s placement atop the sarcophagus depicting Heracles’s feats.

The detailed plastic rendering of the small figures distinguished by a minute care for detail suggests a chronological setting in the mid second century CE, the same period to which the acroteria may be dated.  

Giulia Ciccarello