Harvard Art Museums > 1920.44.140.A-B: Osteotheke Sculpture Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Osteotheke , 1920.44.140.A-B,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 27, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/292213. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1920.44.140.A-B Title Osteotheke Classification Sculpture Work Type sculpture Date 200-300 CE Period Late Antique period Culture Graeco-Roman Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/292213 Physical Descriptions Medium Marble Dimensions 14 x 11.2 x 17.2 cm (5 1/2 x 4 7/16 x 6 3/4 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1920. Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908). Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton Accession Year 1920 Object Number 1920.44.140.A-B 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 1990131 Graeco-Roman Osteotheke The soapy, alabaster-like marble is of the type used for small statues in Alexandria in Roman times. The surfaces of the body and lid are incrusted with cement. There is a deep, slightly curved channel cut from one end of the top of the lid to the middle. The form is that of an Attic sarcophagus, and the date might be in the third century A.D., or later. The piece of marble may have been reused, or the carefully cut-out area on the lid may have been designed for some form of vertical attachment, perhaps a cross. Some such reliquaries have a depression in the gable of the roof or an opening for pouring a libation. They were often used for the relics of saints as well as the cremated remains of loved ones. This example may have had decoration painted on the outer surfaces. A similar marble reliquary chest from under the altar of a ruined sixth-century church near Varna (Odessos) in Bulgaria had relics, perhaps of the True Cross, in a gold box set with precious stones insides a silver sarcophagus of traditional Attic shape, all placed in the marble chest with its gabled lid (Weitzmann 1979, pp. 631-633, under no. 569). 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.141, no. 131 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
