CIRCA EARLY 3RD CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE SARCOPHAGUS
CIRCA EARLY 3RD CENTURY A.D.
78 in. (198.1 cm.) long

Provenance

Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo al Celio, Rome, 16th century (wherein seen and partially drawn by Giovannantonio Dosio (1533–1611), Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Ms. lat. Fol. 61n).
Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637), Rome; thence by continuous descent within the Giustiniani family until at least the late 19th/early 20th century.
Private Collection; thence by descent.
Property from a California Private Collection; Antiquities, Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 2016, lot 62.

Literature

Galleria Giustiniana del Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, vol. II, Rome, circa 1640, pl. 98.
K. O. Müller, Handbuch der Archäologie der Kunst, 3rd edition, Breslau, 1848, p. 655.
G. Zoega, Manuscript apparatus to the Bassirilievi di Roma, late 18th century, Royal Library, Copenhagen, fol. 299.
O. Jahn, “Über ein Marmorrelief der Glyptothek in München,” Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Königlich-Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, vol. 6, 1854, p. 182, n. 101; p. 190, n. 148.
O. Jahn, Entführung der Europa auf antiken Kunstwerken, Vienna, 1870, p. 51, n. 4.
F. Matz and F. von Duhn, Antike Bildwerke in Rom: mit Ausschluss der grösseren Sammlungen, vol. 2, Leipzig, 1881, p. 379, no. 3197.
F. R. Dressler, Triton und die Tritonen in der Litteratur und Kunst der Griechen und Römer, vol. 2, Wurzen, 1893, p. 14, no. 19.
W.H. Roscher, ed., Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, Leipzig, 1916-1924, p. 1193.
C. Hülsen, Das Skizzenbuch des Giovannantonio Dosio im Staatlichen Kupferstichkabinett zu Berlin, Berlin, 1933, p. 59.
A. Rumpf, Die Meerwesen auf den antiken Sarkophagreliefs, Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs, vol. V.1, Berlin, 1939, pp. 26-28, no. 71, figs. 40-41, pl. 20.
Angela Gallottini, Le sculture della collezione Giustiniani: I. Documenti, Rome, 1998, p. 69, fig. 22; p. 272, no. 279.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637) assembled one of the most important private collections of ancient sculpture during the Renaissance. Born in Chios to a family of merchants from Genoa, Giustiniani came to Rome as a child and, drawing on his vast financial resources, established himself as the era’s foremost collector and patron. His vast holdings – encompassing some 1,894 antiquities at the time of his death – was dispersed among his residence in Rome, the Palazzo Giustiniani (now the seat of the Presidency of the Italian Senate) and two villas. Despite Giustiniani’s wish to keep his collection intact after his death, sales of the collection were already recorded as early as the late 17th century and continued apace until the early 20th century. Today, works from the Giustiniani Collection are dispersed in institutions and private collections worldwide. For a discussion of the collection and its dispersal, see L. Buccino, “The Antiquities Collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani,” in S. Settis and C. Gasparri, eds., The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces.

The front panel of the present sarcophagus depicts a portrait bust of a woman within a shell. To either side are Nereids, one riding a Triton and the other grasping the neck of a sea-bull. The scene, including the short sides, is complemented with erotes and other sea creatures. For the type, known as a sea-creature sarcophagus, see pp. 195-197 and figs. 237-242 in K. Koch and H. Sichtermann, Römische Sarkophage.

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