Harvard Art Museums > 1983.83: Decorative Frieze with Wolves Chasing Gazelles Architectural Elements Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Decorative Frieze with Wolves Chasing Gazelles , 1983.83,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 23, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/287358. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1983.83 Title Decorative Frieze with Wolves Chasing Gazelles Classification Architectural Elements Work Type architectural element Date c. 300-500 CE Places Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient) Period Byzantine period, Early Culture Coptic Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/287358 Physical Descriptions Medium Limestone Dimensions actual: 27 x 66.5 cm (10 5/8 x 26 3/16 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Professor Nelson Goodman, Weston, MA, Collector. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Nelson Goodman Accession Year 1983 Object Number 1983.83 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990152 Decorative Frieze with Wolves Chasing Gazelles The stone is seemingly good-grain limestone with some overall surface chipping, especially around the edges. A large, scrolled vine fills this fragment, creating three separate circular zones. The beginning of another vine can be seen in the upper left corner. In the rightmost zone can be seen the heads and necks of two charging wolves and the head, neck, and torso of a third wolf. In the middle zone, a fourth wolf has caught the hind leg of a gazelle in his teeth. The gazelle, whose front half is in the left zone, turns its head and looks back and up over its shoulder. The hind part of a second gazelle can be seen fleeing to the left. This work, currently installed in the stairwell of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, is an exceptionally fine and sensitive rendering of a figured vine rinceau, a motif that occurs widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean from the Roman period on. Compare the example from the Malcove Collection, University of Toronto, M82.313 (Friedman, 1989, p. 259, no. 173). Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer Publication History Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 166, no. 152 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
