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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1971.92
Title
Fragment of Sarcophagus Relief
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 160 CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/287375

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Cyrstalline Greek island marble (perhaps from Thasos)
Dimensions
actual: 25.4 x 31.8 x 9 cm (10 x 12 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
From the art market in Rome (1968), along with a companion fragment, now in a private collection in London, showing the heads of Persephone's sisters witnessing her abduction by Hades, assisted by Athena (Koch, 1976, fig. 22a).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Rowland, Jr.
Accession Year
1971
Object Number
1971.92
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
123

Fragment of Sarcophagus Relief

This fragment is broken on a diagonal axis. The head of Hermes is broken at the neck, as is the head of one of the horses. A portion of the molding remains above Hermes' head.

Hermes is seen with two horses. The horses are facing to the right, and the head of one is two-thirds missing. Hermes is facing to the left. The section of heavy, fillet molding is preserved above the god's petasos.

Guntram Koch illustrates two Rape of Persephone sarcophagi, once in the Palazzo Barberini, which give an excellent idea as to how the composition once looked. The figure of Hermes and the horses of the quadriga are usually at or just before the extreme right front end or corner of the sarcophagus. A geographical personification, Tellus (Earth) or Oceanus reclines right to left under the unquadrated, galloping legs of the horses (Koch, 1976, p. 108, figs. 20, 21a).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • [Unidentified article], The Art Quarterly (1972), no. 35, p. 186
  • Guntram Koch, "Verschollene Mythologische Sarkophage", Archaologischer Anzeiger, Walter de Gruyter and Co. (Berlin, Germany, 1976), no. 1, pp. 101-110, pp. 108-109, no. 21, fig. 22b
  • Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum Annual Report, 1972-1974 (Cambridge, MA, 1976), p. 84
  • Guntram Koch and Helmut Sichtermann, Römische Sarkophage, C. H. Beck (Munich, 1982), p. 176
  • 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. 134, no. 123

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