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Gallery Text

Whose Tomb Did This Sphinx Guard?

An Etruscan family placed this sphinx at the entrance to a tomb in Vulci (modern Italy) in the mid-sixth century BCE. We do not know their names. But we do know that they wanted this sphinx to guard them in the afterlife. Can it do that, from here in Cambridge?

Many objects displayed in our ancient art galleries come from tombs. The fact that they are now in a museum collection means that the graves of ancient people were disturbed and disrupted. From destructive practices, these objects and the memories of the individuals to whom they belonged have come into the care of the Harvard Art Museums.

As we consider more ethical ways to display funerary objects, we invite you to remember these ancient individuals—those whose names we know and those whose names are lost—and we welcome your responses to our efforts. Scan to share your thoughts: [QR code: https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_00AJP3bn0h67MEK]

Caring for the Dead at the Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1984.195
Title
Sphinx
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statue
Date
550-540 BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Vulci (Etruria)
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Etruscan
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/288896

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3460, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Art of the Ancient Mediterranean and Middle East
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Volcanic stone (nenfro)
Technique
Carved
Dimensions
56 x 69 x 25 cm (22 1/16 x 27 3/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
130 lb.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Sotheby's, New York, June 8, 1984, lot 13], sold; to the Fogg Art Museum. From the Kelekian Collection, New York. Presumably from the vicinity of Vulci.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, David M. Robinson and Marian H. Phinney Funds and the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum Discretionary Fund for the Ancient Art Department
Accession Year
1984
Object Number
1984.195
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
10 Etruscan

Sphinx from a Tomb

The center of the body, from next to the start of the major part of the wing, is restored. The surfaces are chipped and pitted, and there are other damages, such as to the nose, which are visible in photographs. Almost all of the legs, save the start of the forelegs, are missing, as is the base that supported the paws.

The sphinx's head is turned at right angles to her body. Her hair is parted in the center, and four heavy tresses fall onto her neck and right side from behind her ears. Strong, round fillet moldings delineate the divisions of head and neck, body, and the conventional curving East Greek wings.

This statue represents the elegance of high Ionian sculpture translated into an Etruscan material and Etruscan forms of expression. Like all of these monumental sculptures from Archaic Etruscan tombs, this sphinx was carved to be viewed from the direction to which the head is turned and to which the body runs at right angles. The other side (left and back of the head) was finished with much less detail, suggesting that such statues were set in pairs along the dromos or over the lintel of a tomb.

While the Etruscan lions and sphinxes with heads facing ahead are free-standing entities, probably set facing each other at the entrances to the tombs, the start of the dromoi, leopards, panthers, hippocamps, and certain other real or mythological creatures share the qualities of paired mirror reversals seen in the sphinxes with heads to right or left. Size determines which surviving sphinx might have been the pendant to the Kelekian-Robinson-Phinney-Fogg statue. One possibility in scale and style is the fragmentary sphinx exhibited on several occasions in the possession of Munzen and Medaillen A. G., Basel, and Andre Emmerich Gallery, Inc., 1970, no. 35; Andre Emmerich Gallery, Inc., 1975, no. 37).

Among the comparable Etruscan nenfro sculptures in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the two sphinxes had their faces straight ahead, while the three leopards with head turned right (one) and left (two) were clearly designed to be set on lintels or within the confines of pediments.

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Sotheby Parke Bernet, Sale 5195, auct. cat., Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co. (New York, NY, June 8, 1984), lot 13, color plate
  • 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. 24, no. 10
  • Charles Segal, Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge, Oxford University Press (NY) (New York, NY, 2001), Front Cover of Book
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., Harvard Art Museum/Handbook (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008)

Exhibition History

  • Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008
  • 32Q: 3460 East Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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