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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1949.47.144
Title
Fragment of a Figure in Relief
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 160 -235 CE
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/291282

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pentelic marble
Dimensions
actual: 26 x 9.5 cm (10 1/4 x 3 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Brummer Gallery, New York, NY, Sold to the Fogg Art Museum, 1949. Probably purchased at one of three sales of Brummer's merchandise held in 1949.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing Fund
Accession Year
1949
Object Number
1949.47.144
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
125

Fragment of a Figure in Relief

All of the edges are broken. The right arm and chest from shoulder to waist remain.

A lock of hair is visible on the shoulder of this figure, moving from left to right like Virtus on a large hunting sarcophagus. A bracelet is also visible on the right, upper arm, and the drapery (himation) has fallen around the waist, although the chiton (pinned on the right shoulder) covers the right breast. This is not a characteristic of Amazonian figures on big sarcophagi.

The sarcophagus with symbolic hunting scenes, about A.D. 230, in the Palazzo Mattei, Rome, has a figure of Virtus following the imperatorial hunter on horseback. Although the chiton has slipped from the right breast, the pose is identical with that of this fragment (Vermeule, C., 1978, pp. 140-141, 198, 365, fig. 148).

This figure may also be identified as a fragment from a sarcophagus depicting the myth of Achilles on Skyros. It shows a daughter of Lykomedes rather than an Amazon, Roma, or similar symbolic figure. The thickness of the background suggests a large sarcophagus or commemorative relief.

On other sarcophagi representing Achilles on Skyros, one of the daughters of Lykomedes typically holds out her arm in the gesture seen in the Harvard fragment. A good example is the late Antonine or Severan sarcophagus at Woburn Abbey depicting Achilles on Skyros. On the Woburn Abbey sarcophagus, the third daughter from the left assumes this pose, identifiable despite the fact that her arm has been restored without the bracelet which, in the original story, the girls grabbed while Achilles was busy with the martial equipment (McCann, 1978, pp. 67-68, fig. 73).

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. 136, no. 125

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