Puteal

CultureRoman

PeriodAugustan

Datelate 1st Century BCE - early 1st Century CE

MediumMarble (Luna [Carrara])

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions43 x 23 3/4 in. (109.2 x 60.3 cm)

Object number2006.038.001

Label TextThis puteal (wellhead) was perhaps first used as a votive altar before being repurposed in antiquity; deep grooves in the rim were worn over time by ropes pulling up pails of water. It is decorated in relief with four scenes divided by slender thyrsoi. Two of the scenes are Dionysian: one depicts a pine tree in whose branches a goat-headed rhyton (drinking horn) and two flutes hang; the other shows a panther drinking from a wine jug beneath a garland of vines strung with a hunting stick and oscillum (roundel) decorated with a dancing Cupid. These alternate with two scenes referencing Apollo: one with a griffin beneath a garland of laurel branches, the other with a tripod entwined with a serpent and on which an eagle perches. A bow and quiver leans to the side. Motifs relating to both gods were popular in the 1st century AD, often in opposition like this. Dionysus represented the pleasures of luxury and Apollo the virtues of restraint, in this context perhaps demonstrating the importance of balancing piety with leisure.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, February 2009 - August 26, 2013
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 25, 2013 - Present
Published ReferencesAdolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge: The University Press, 1882), 456, number 69.
A. Smith, et al., A Catalogue of Ancient Marbles at Lansdowne House: Based upon the Work of Adolf Michaelis (London, 1889), 32, number 69.
Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles, the Property of the Most Honourable The Marquess of Lansdowne (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, March 5, 1930), 22, number 28.
MCCM Newsletter, September - November 2006.
Bianca de Divitiis, "New Evidence for Sculptures from Diomede Carafa's Collection of Antiquities," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 70 (2007): 104-105.
Eloisa Dodero, Ancient Marbles in Naples in the Eighteenth Century: Findings, Collections, Dispersals (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019): 324-326, no. 12.

ProvenanceEx coll. Diomede Carafa (ca. 1406-1487), Naples, Italy, 15th Century. Thence by descent. At Palazzo Diomede Carafa, Naples, Italy, mid-late 18th Century. Possibly with Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798), Rome, Italy, late 18th Century. Ex coll. William Petty (1737-1805), First Marquess of Lansdowne, Lansdowne House, London, England, from late 18th Century. Thence by descent. With Christie's London, Ancient Marbles from the Marquess of Lansdowne Collection, March 5, 1930. Ex coll. Joseph Altounian (1890-1954), France, thence by descent. Purchased by MCCM from Rupert Wace Ancient Art, Ltd., London, England.

Status

On view

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