CIRCA EARLY 3RD CENTURY A.D.

The portrait bust in the central medallion of the front panel was left unfinished in antiquity. While traditionally explained by practical matters – such as the financial insolvency of a patron or time constraints – recent scholarship has embraced the notion that unfinished sarcophagi may have been intentional. These reasons may include a change in Roman attitudes away from public achievement toward private spirituality or philosophical and religious ideas which prompted new ways of looking at the human body and visual images. For a discussion of the phenomenon, see J. Huskinson “'Unfinished Portrait Heads' on Later Roman Sarcophagi: Some New Perspectives,” Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. 66, pp. 129-158.