ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art

Garland Sarcophagus

(not entered)Sarcophagus

CultureRoman

PeriodHadrianic

Datemid 2nd Century CE

MediumMarble, (Luna [Carrara] or Dokimeion)

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions90 x 33 x 30 in. (228.6 x 83.8 x 76.2 cm)

Object number1999.011.007

Label TextThe majority of surviving Roman sarcophagi are decorated with carved garlands like this one. The motif had previously been popular on funerary altars, and was continued on sarcophagi when inhumation replaced cremation as the dominant form of burial in the second century AD. The front of this sarcophagus shows four cupids supporting garlands composed of different plants representing each of the four seasons: flowers for Spring, grain for Summer, fruits and nuts for Autumn, and olives for Winter. Between them, four more cupids ride wild animals and carry food appropriate to each time of year: from left to right, a cupid on a lion carries a cornucopia, a second on a bull carries a basket of grain, a third on a panther brings a basket of grapes, and a fourth on a boar carries an olive branch. The garlands continue on the short sides: oak on the proper right and olive on the proper left, both suspended from a herm with a youthful male head. Above each garland, a griffin.

The lid is decorated with four vignettes separated by youthful herms. From left to right: a cupid wrestles Pan; Telephus is suckled by the deer; Romulus and Remus are suckled by the She-Wolf; Pan locks horns with a goat. Tragic masks at the corners. On the short sides, a facing head with a beard in the form of acanthus leaves surrounded by flowering tendrils.

Such images offered consolation both to the bereaved and to the deceased, promising comfort and abundance in the Afterlife whilst reiterating the cyclical nature of life and death.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, 2000 - May 2004
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - August 2007
The Roman World: Religions and Everyday Life, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, September 21, 2007 - January 6, 2008
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, February 2009 - Present
Published ReferencesApollo (July 1993): Esperia Art advert.
Helga Herdejurgen, Stadtromische und Italische Girlandensarkophage (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1996), 106, number 44.
MCCM Newsletter, March - May 2000.
Jasper Gaunt, "New Galleries of Greek and Roman Art at Emory University: The Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (2005): 13-17.

ProvenanceEx private collection, Switzerland. With Esperia Art, London, England, 1992. Ex coll. Mr. M. Kalil a.o., London, England, before 1996. Purchased by MCCM from Christoph Leon, Basel, Switzerland.

Status

On view

Collections