A ROMAN MARBLE MARRIAGE SARCOPHAGUS PANEL

NORTH AFRICAN, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.

細節

A ROMAN MARBLE MARRIAGE SARCOPHAGUS PANEL
NORTH AFRICAN, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.
The central scene with a husband and wife standing before a draping cloth or parapetasma, their hands clasped as a symbol of union (dextrarum iunctio), winged Eros as Hymenaeus, the god of marriage, between them with his torch upraised, the groom gripping the tabulae nuptiales or marriage contract in his left hand, the bride veiled, the central group framed by the four Seasons as paunchy youthful boys, fluted Corinthian pilasters at the corners, Spring to the far left, wearing a mantle pinned at his right shoulder, holding a small goat by its fore-legs, a basket of flowers in his raised left hand, a budding tree behind, Summer beside him, holding a sickle in his lowered right hand, a sheath of wheat leaning against his left arm, another bundle, a grasshopper and a date tree behind, to the right of the couple, Autumn with pomegranates supported in the fold of his mantle, a grape cluster in his lowered right hand, a grape vine behind, and Winter to the far right clad in a belted tunic, boots and a cap, shouldering a young deer, a brace of ducks in his lowered left hand, an olive tree behind
70 7/8 in. (180 cm.) long

來源

European Private Collection, acquired in the 1980s.

拍品專文

According to McAnn, (Roman Sarcophagi in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 124ff.), the depiction of the act of marriage "belongs to a particular group of sarcophagi that illustrate the life and manners of the deceased" by which each scene represents a virtue, marriage symbolizing concordia. Coupled with the Seasons, the scene comes to symbolize "the eternal union of the couple in the afterlife."

For two similar examples at the Musée du Bardo, Tunis, see nos. 588 and 590 in Kranz, Jahreszeiten-Sarkophage: Entwicklung und Ikonographie des Motivs der vier Jahreszeiten auf kaiserzeitlichen Sarkophagen und Sarkophagdeckeln. Note particularly the treatment of the shouldered animal on both and the marriage scene on no. 588.