Section of a sarcophagus front, decorated with festoons, Erotes and sea motifs
This fragment was originally part of a sarcophagus, other portions of which have also been preserved (Portico, CCXXXIII and CCXXXXI). It is decorated with a garland of leaves, fruit, berries and ribbons that was originally held up by two putti, only the plump hands of which survive, the figures having been removed to adapt the relief to its modern frame. Inside the lunette, a Triton, a minor sea deity who accompanies the procession of Poseidon, sounds a long, twisted shell and carries a Nereid, one of the daughters of Nereus and Doris, on his back.
This iconographic type is part of a series of sarcophagi decorated with garlands that was produced between the first and fourth centuries CE. The marine procession represented in the lunette was one of the most popular themes in Roman funerary sculpture, in clear reference to the bliss and peace of the afterworld.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
height 56 cm, width 62 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection (before 1671)?; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese, 1833, C., p. 43, no. 30. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
Commentary
This fragment, inserted in a modern frame, is from the short side of a sarcophagus. The two ends, which were decorated with putti holding up the garland of leaves, fruit, berries and ribbon, were cut off, leaving only the figures’ plump hands. Inside the lunette, a young Triton sounds a long, twisted shell called a buccina and carries a Nereid on his back. There are other portions of the same sarcophagus in the Portico, CCXXXXI (see the catalogue entry for a critical analysis of the monument and its collecting history) and CCXXXIII.
The relief is part of a large group of sarcophagi decorated with sea creatures and produced for Roman 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
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- E. Z. Platner, C. K. J. F. von Bunsen, E. Gerhard, W. Röstell, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, III, Stuttgart und Tubingen 1837, p. 236 n. 16.
- P. Gusman, L’art décoratif de Rome de la fin de la République au IVe siècle, III, Paris 1900, p. 24, tav. 174.
- J. M. C. Toynbee, The Hadrianic School: A Chapter in the History of Greek Art, Cambridge 1934 1934, pp. 212, 219, 224.
- A. Rumpf, Die Meerwesen auf den antiken Sarkophagreliefs, Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs V, 1, Berlin 1939, p. 4, n. 10, tav. 3.
- R. Calza, Catalogo del Gabinetto fotografico Nazionale, Galleria Borghese, Collezione degli oggetti antichi, Roma 1957, p. 17, n. 183.
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- H. Herdejürgen, Antike und moderne Reliefs in der Villa Borghese, in “Archäologischen Anzeiger”, 4, 1997, pp. 480-503, in part. pp. 490-497, fig. 12.
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- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, p. 131, n. 95.
- 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 12/01008299, P. Moreno 1975; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2021
