A ROMAN MARBLE SARCOPHAGUS FRAGMENT
PROPERTY OF A NEW ENGLAND INSTITUTION
A ROMAN MARBLE SARCOPHAGUS FRAGMENT

CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.

Details
A ROMAN MARBLE SARCOPHAGUS FRAGMENT
CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.
13 ½ in. (34.2 cm.) high
Provenance
Private Collection, Boston, acquired by 1900; thence by bequest to the current owner (Inv. no. SOw8).
Literature
C.C. Vermeule, et al., Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1977, p. 49, no. 67.

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Hannah Solomon
Hannah Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

Lot Essay

C.C. Vermeule (op. cit.) believed this fragment depicted Hercules endeavoring to tame the horses of Diomedes and compared it to a sarcophagus once in the Villa Ludovisi showing the complete Labors of the hero (see C. Robert, Die antiken Sarkophag-Releifs, vol. III, pt. 1, pl. 29, no. 103). However, because neither the facial features of the figure nor the chlamys correspond to typical depictions of the hero, another identification is possible; for instance, a similar bearded, although unidentified, man stands next to a horse and in front of a sacrificial altar on a fragment in the Vatican (see Arachne Online Database no. 1081511).

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