Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
This object does not yet have a description.

Gallery Text

Ba’altega, Daughter of Hairan. Alas!

Ba’altega gazes at us. Decked out in fine jewelry and reaching modestly toward her veil, she is the very image of a wealthy Palmyrene mother. This portrait likely marked Ba’altega’s burial in a family tomb when it was made in the second century CE.

Imagine stepping into Ba’altega’s family tomb at Palmyra. A tendril of scented smoke floats up from incense you lit on a small altar. The light from your oil lamp flickers on the faces of the ancestors around you. You spot Ba’altega and step closer, ready to pour a libation and leave her your lamp.

In Palmyra, she would have been surrounded by similar portraits marking burials of her family members, all identified by name. Here in Cambridge, she is accompanied only by her sons, Šim’on, shown to the left, and Hairan, shown to the right.

Caring for the Dead at the Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1908.3
Title
Funerary Relief of a Woman and Two Children
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, bust
Date
c. 150 CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Palmyra (Syria)
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Syrian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/292643

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3710, North Arcade
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Limestone
Technique
Carved
Dimensions
71.5 cm h x 56.5 cm w x 27 cm d (28 1/8 x 22 1/4 x 10 5/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: Ba'altega, daughter of Hairan. Alas! Si'mon her son.; Hairan, her son.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Market, Damascas, (by 1907)], sold; to Alden Sampson (New York), Richard Norton (Cambridge, MA), and Edward Waldo Forbes (Cambridge, MA) (1907-1908), gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1908.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Alden Sampson, Richard Norton, and Edward W. Forbes
Accession Year
1908
Object Number
1908.3
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
149

Palmyrene Sepulchral Relief

The surfaces are in good condition. The forefinger of her left hand is chipped. There is a crack across the torso below the left arm. Some red paint remains in the inscriptions.

The relief depicts a woman in elaborate costume flanked by two children above, left and right. The monument has been dated by Harald Ingholt. The woman in the center is touching the edge of her veil with the usual gesture of her raised right hand; she holds a ceremonial object, like a cord with pomegranate tassels, against her upper stomach with the left hand. She wears jewelry where it is possible for display, from gold bands in the hair to triple-pendant earrings, to four different types of necklaces, to bracelets on both wrists, and, finally, to rings on her fingers.

The children behind her seem to be a young girl with a necklace or apron of fruits, on her right, and a slightly older boy, a ceremonial tassel in his left hand, on her left.

There are three inscriptions on the relief. The one belonging to the woman is located to the right of the veil and extends to the left side of the head of the child on the right. It reads "daughter of Hayran, Alas!" The inscription to the right of the child on the right, belongs to that child and reads "Hayran, her son." The inscription on the left, belonging to the child on the left, reads "Simon, her son."

A head of a lady carved in the same style but with hair arranged somewhat differently has been placed by Harald Ingholt in Group II of the Palmyrene funerary monuments and dated about A.D. 150—200 (Comstock, Vermeule, 1976, p. 258, no. 404).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Waldemar Déonna, "Collections archeologiques et historiques, Collections Fol, Salle des Armures, Collections lapidaires", Genava, ville de Geneve bulletin du Musee d'Art et d'Histoire (1923), vol. I, p. 52
  • Waldemar Déonna, "Monuments Orientaux du Musee de Geneve", Syria, Revue d'Art Oriental et d'Archeologie (1923), no. 4, p. 231
  • George H. Chase, Greek and Roman Sculpture in American Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1924), pp. 190-191, fig. 242
  • Harald Ingholt, Studier over palmyrenske skulptur, C.A. Reitzel (Copenhagen, Denmark, 1928), pp. 132, ps 374, 158
  • Edward Waldo Forbes, Yankee Visionary, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1971), The Checklist, p. 150
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America, University of California Press (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1981), p. 380, no. 329
  • 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. 163, no. 149
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., Harvard Art Museum/Handbook (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008)
  • [Reproduction Only], Persephone, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2011, p. 14.
  • Maura K. Heyn, The World of Palmyra, ed. Andreas Kropp and Rubina Raja, Det Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskab (Copenhagen, 2016), pp. 196-198, fig. 2

Exhibition History

  • Roman Gallery Installation (long-term), Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/16/1999 - 01/20/2008
  • Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008
  • Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 3710 North Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • ReFrame
  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

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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