Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
153
Decorative Frieze with Acanthus Leaf Motif
The stone is seemingly a good grade of limestone. There are damages to the upper fillet molding, to the thin fillet at the right end, and to the broader, lower fillet.
Although dated in the sixth century, it is equally likely a work of the fifth century. This block is the right section of a longer frieze or panel, the first scroll at the left having been continued on the adjoining section. The enrichment is a flattened, only somewhat stylized version of good Roman Imperial frieze decoration going back to the age of the Ara Pietatis Augustae in Rome, the reign of the Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41—54). A continuous acanthus scroll forms three major loops from left to right, the missing section of leaf curling into the first half-scroll seems to end in a leafy bud not unlike an artichoke. The acanthus leaves vary in their manner of carving, sometimes being almost incised.
Acanthus of similar style and quality is seen on a section of frieze from El Bahnassa with a deer at the left and the young Herakles advancing to the right, club in hand (Eisenberg, 1960, pp. 24, 26, no. 34, fifth to sixth centuries A.D.). An earlier, or perhaps nearly contemporary version of the Harvard frieze comes from a church at Ahnas (Ahnas el-Medineh = Herakleopolis) and has been dated around the year A.D. 400 (Strzygowski, 1904, pp. 48-49, no. 7306, fig. 57, see also pp. 49-50, no. 7308, fig. 59).
The right end of a limestone frieze in Mr. Hagop Kevorkian's possession in 1941, also said to be from Bawit, and dated around A.D. 500 (H. 0.31 m, W. 1.50 m), is fairly close to the corresponding section of the Harvard carving (Cooney, 1941, p. 26, no. 52, illus.). (In 1975 approximately 156 fragments of Coptic architectural sculptures in relief from the collection of Hagop Kevorkian came to the Harvard University Art Museums. Unfortunately, space limitations prohibit us from including this collection in the present catalogue. In 1985, 19 fragments from this collection were installed in the main stairwell of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University.)
Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer
