Sarcophagus Lid with the Capitoline Triad

Roman art

This relief, once belonging to a sarcophagus lid, depicts the Capitoline Triad – Minerva, Juno and Jupiter – flanked by the two Dioscuri. At the two ends are the personifications of the rising Sun (left) and of the setting Moon (right).

In 1700 it was mentioned inside the second enclosure of the Villa, near the Theatre, and later, in 1827, it was included among the works to be restored by Massimiliano Laboureur prior to being placed in the halls left bare by Napoleon’s intervention. In 1832, it was finally placed in its present location, set in one of the walls of Room 2.

This work is especially detailed, the distribution of the figures carefully studied and covering the entire surface.

This panel can be chronologically placed in the mid-second century CE.

Object details

Commentary

In 1700, the relief was mentioned by Montelatici inside the second enclosure of the garden near the Theatre: ‘At one end is depicted the Sun when he is born, driving his Horse-drawn chariot; in the middle are two Women holding sticks, maybe the Hours preceding the Sun, and between them a young man with an Eagle at his feet; at the other end is the Moon, also upon a chariot similarly drawn by Horses, diving into the Ocean’ (pp. 88–89). In 1827, it appeared in a letter addressed to Prince Camillo Borghese by the Minister Evasio Gozzani, listed among the works to be placed inside the Villa after the Napoleonic acquisition. The sculptor Massimiliano Laboureur was entrusted with the restoration (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Arch. Borghese, b. 7457: Moreno, Sforzini 1987, p. 355). Finally, in 1832 it was mentioned by Nibby in its present location in Room 2 (p. 75), set in the wall above the sarcophagus depicting a marine thiasus (inv. LXXXVII).

The centre of the panel, which once belonged to the lid of a sarcophagus, is decorated with the figures of the Capitoline Triad – Minerva, Juno and Jupiter – flanked by the two Dioscuri. This composition is bounded by the rising Sun (on the left), depicted in the act of climbing into his chariot drawn by rampant horses and followed by the Ocean; and by the setting Moon (on the right), who is also driving a chariot, its horses, led by Hesperus, seemingly descending into the depths of the earth. The Sun is portrayed in divine nakedness, in the act of climbing into the chariot upon which he is resting his left foot. In his left hand he is holding the reins, in his right a whip. He is wearing a mantle fastened around his neck and playfully buffeted by the wind. On the ground, the recumbent personification of the Ocean, the lower part of its body and its shoulders covered by a himaton, or mantle. Next comes a Dioscuro who is naked, like his brother on the opposite side; only his head is veiled. This figure is heading for the centre of the composition, holding a long spear in his right hand.

Minerva is standing, supported by a spear on which she is leaning with her left arm, from which her himation is hanging; her left leg is crossed over the right. The goddess is wearing a long, high-waisted chiton underneath which her feet are showing and a helmet on her head. Jupiter, covered only in a himation that is falling off his arms, is facing forward, his left leg slightly bent and set forward, his right held straight to support his body. In his left hand he is holding a long sceptre. At his feet is an eagle standing with its wings spread and its head turned up towards the god. Juno is wearing a chiton fastened under her breasts and a himation that covers her head and falls down her body. In her left hand she is holding a sceptre. Following the figure of the second Dioscuro is the personification of the Moon, dressed similarly to the other two goddesses, her mantle forming a velificatio behind her uncovered head, which is turned towards the other gods. The woman is standing on the moving chariot and holding the reins with both hands. Mounting the horses who have already in part disappeared is young Hesperus, who is leading them and holding on to the mane of one of the animals.

The worship of this triad – Jupiter, Juno and Minerva – was established on the summit of the Capitoline hill in an exceptionally grandiose sanctuary erected towards the end of the sixth century BCE and was quite prominent in Roman religion from the very start, answering the religious needs of the entire city as well as the State. The figurative decoration of the tympanum of this sanctuary must have presented a decorative composition similar to the Borghese panel, as we can make out in a fragment of a relief once belonging to the very same Borghese Collection and now preserved at the Louvre (Cianciani 1997, p 439, pl. 287, no. 212b).

Zanker believed that mythological funerary depictions were an allegorical expression of the personal realisation of the individual in their private sphere and, to a lesser degree, of their place in society (2005, pp. 243–251). In particular, the Borghese panel seems to have marked the burial of an eminent person, probably holding a high office in the city.

The composition of the scene is full of a wealth of plastic details, the figures covering the entire surface, which indicates a chronological setting in the mid second century CE.