Sarcophagus with Erotes Holding an Inscribed Clipeus

Roman art

This sarcophagus, of unknown provenance, is decorated on the front with a central clipeus inscribed with a mother’s dedication to her son, Lucio Tullio Milziade, who died when he was ten years and nine months old. The clipeus is held up on either side by a pair of plump flying Erotes. The Erotes are wearing mantles, their arms are outstretched, their legs spread and their soft faces are framed by curls. Below each Eros, there are a panther and a torch, in mirror image. At the two far ends, there is a group with Cupid and Psyche, the main characters in a mythological tale best known in the version taken from Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. Finally, the two short sides are decorated with winged griffins, carved in lower relief. The Borghese sarcophagus also preserves its lid, which is decorated with the mask of Oceanus, whose long moustaches extend like waves, ridden by two sea monsters. This subject had eschatological meaning and was especially popular starting at the end of the Severan period.

The decorative motif on the front enjoyed great success in Roman workshops, as attested by the numerous sarcophagi embellished with Erotes or Victories holding a clipeus or a panel with a dedicatory inscription, dating between the Antonine period and the third century CE. The subject of Cupid and Psyche, an allegory of the immortality of love, which conquers death, was also very popular in Roman funerary art and especially appreciated in the Christian sphere.

Object details

Commentary

This rectangular child’s sarcophagus, of unknown provenance, was already in the park of the villa in the eighteenth century, as documented in engravings by J. C. Reinhart (1794), in which it is set amidst the trees, and a print from the early nineteenth century included in a volume by Ch. Percier and Ph. La Fontaine (1809), which shows it arbitrarily arranged with other sculptures near the Temple of Diana, along the path that led to the garden of the lake. The sarcophagus was later moved to the Portico, as part of the installation of the collection in the Casino of the Villa Pinciana in the nineteenth century. At this time, it was displayed as a pendant to a sarcophagus with a similar subject and used as a base for a modern sculpture of a sleeping nymph.

Decorated on the front between two smooth, projecting listels, it has a central clipeus held up by two plump, flying Erotes in mirror image. The Erotes are wearing long, fluttering mantles, their arms are outstretched, their legs spread and their soft faces are frames by curls. The clipeus is inscribed: D(iis) M(anibus) / L(ucio) Tullio Mil / tiadi filio /vixit annis /VIIII mens(ibus) X/ mater dulcis, a mother’s dedication to young Lucio Tullio Milziade, who died when he was ten years and nine months old.

Below each Eros, there is an overturned torch and a resting panther, symmetrically turned towards the middle of the composition. On each of the far ends, there is a group with Cupid and Psyche embracing, in keeping with one of the most popular image types featuring the pair. On the left, Cupid, winged and nude, is standing with his weight on his left leg; his right leg is free and slightly moved forward. He turns Psyche’s face towards him with his left hand. Psyche is shown in a three-quarter pose, standing with her weight on her left leg. Her torso is nude, and she is wearing a himation draped around her lower body. She has butterfly wings and touches Cupid’s belly with her right hand, looking towards him. There is a quiver behind Cupid. In the opposite corner, the group is repeated in mirror image. Lastly, the short sides are carved in lower relief with two griffins with spread wings.

The clipeusmotiv decorating the Borghese sarcophagus is understood to have originated in Asia Minor (Rodenwaldt 1943, p. 13). It was extremely successful in Roman workshops, as attested by the numerous sarcophagi with symmetrically arranged flying or standing Erotes, sometimes substituted with Victories, holding up either an anephigraphic clipeus, a portrait bust of the deceased or a tabula with a dedicatory inscription, dated between the Antonine period and the third century CE. (Koch, Sichermann 1982, pp. 238–241; Blanc, Gury 1986, pp. 982–983; Avagliano, Papini 2015, pp. 222–223, no. 61). There are often groups on either side of the main scene, in mirror image. In the present case, Cupid and Psyche, one of the most popular pairs in Roman sarcophagi (Musso 1981; Belli 1985, Teatini 2011, pp. 218–225, no. 46; Avagliano 2015), in symbolic allusion to the immortality of love, a symbol of faithfulness and marital bliss after death (Turcan 1999, p. 141). It was often also used in Christian contexts, generally on the side panels of strigilated sarcophagi. The motif is a variant on that of the ‘Capitoline Kiss’, a Hellenistic sculpture group that was very popular during the Imperial period and reproduced in copies and variants as well as on sarcophagi (Orlandi 1972).

Panthers are a common reference to the Dionysian cycle of resurrection. This theme is further reinforced by the torch, the flame of which accompanied the deceased during the dark journey to the afterworld, providing light and protection against evil spirits. In eschatological terms, it must have represented the victory of life over death and so a guarantee and symbol of immortality.

The Borghese sarcophagus also preserves its lid, which is decorated with the mask of Oceanus. The god’s beard extends to the ends of the sarcophagus, having turned into waves ridden by two sea monsters on each side. This motif also had eschatological meaning and was often used on sarcophagus lids, starting at the end of the Hadrianic period.

Turning to technique and style, the decoration of the Borghese sarcophagus is not carved in especially high relief and a drill was used for the hair, which is enlivened with small holes. The rough, simplified rendering of the Erotes is very similar to that of the sarcophagus of Postumia Paula Leonica in the Museo Nazionale Romano (inv. 115248; Micheli 1985), suggesting the same date of the first two decades of the third century CE.

Jessica Clementi