Mont Allen
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three conference papers on ancient sarcophagi (2016 AIA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Jan. 6-9)

12/15/2015

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A bonanza.  The upcoming 2016 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (San Francisco, January 6-9) features three papers on ancient sarcophagi:

"Aphrodisian Sarcophagus Sculptors Abroad?"
Sarah Madole, CUNY-BMCC (session 1H)
​
"Who Bought Bucolic? Sheep, Cows, and Villas on Roman Sarcophagi"
Mont Allen, Southern Illinois University (session 1H)

"Local History, Lasting Legacy: The 'Alexander' Sarcophagus in Context"
Rachel Spradley, Southern Methodist University (session 5G)​


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book by Janet Huskinson:  Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi

12/6/2015

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Strigillated sarcophagi were the single most popular type produced in the city of Rome:  no other genre of Metropolitan sarcophagi were carved in such numbers.  Yet precisely because of this — their daunting numbers, along with their relatively limited figuration — they have long languished in the shadow of the lavish mythological frieze sarcophagi that so dominate the scholarship.

Janet Huskinson's new monograph, published by OUP, seeks to redress things.  The first volume in any language (including German) to devote itself entirely to strigillated specimens, it treats everything from the particulars of their manufacture and their varied contemporary social resonance, both pagan and Christian, to their later reuse and long afterlife in European hands.

The full reference:
Janet Huskinson, Roman Strigillated Sarcophagi: Art and Social History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

​The author of this blog will soon review Huskinson's volume for The Classical Review.
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Exhibition at Ordovas features marine sarcophagus beside works by Bacon, Courbet, Picasso, Mondrian, and others

12/6/2015

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As detailed by Artlyst, London's Ordovas gallery is exhibiting a collection of works on marine themes.  Titled The Big Blue, it features a fragment of an Antonine marine sarcophagus showing a Nereid and Tritons (visible at the far right in the photos below), beside works by Francis Bacon, Gustave Courbet, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Yves Klein, Damien Hirst, and others.

Although one wonders about the provenance of the piece, it is lovely to see a Roman sarcophagus celebrated for its relevance amidst such famous modern company.

The show remains on display until December 12.
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Docimean Hercules sarcophagus seized in Geneva to be returned to Turkey

12/6/2015

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As reported by the Tribune de Genève — and later covered in greater detail by the Tages-Anzeiger (many thanks to Christian Russenberger for the link) — a Swiss public prosecutor has ordered that a Roman sarcophagus deposited in the Geneva Freeport warehouse in 2010 and subsequently seized by Swiss Customs during an inventory check later that year be returned to Turkey.

​The piece itself is exquisite:  a creamy Docimean specimen, likely Antonine in date, showing the Twelve Labors of Hercules.

As detailed in earlier blog posts (here, here, and here), Metropolitan sarcophagi (i.e., those from the city of Rome itself) devoted to the Labors of Hercules typically array the hero's first ten labors on the front of the chest in narrative order, with the eleventh and twelfth depicted on the short ends, and nothing on the back (as usual for Metropolitan works), This piece, in contrast, strews the vignettes around all four sides — as expected for an eastern product — in no discernable order.
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    Roman
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    A venue for announcing all that's new and noteworthy in the burgeoning field of sarcophagus studies.

    I hope you, gentle readers, will help make this a collective endeavor.  Should you come across anything new pertaining to Roman sarcophagi — whether a recent article or book addressing them, an exhibition or website featuring them, or an excavation uncovering them — please let me know so I can share it here.


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Mont Allen
Associate Professor of Classics & Art History
School of Languages & Linguistics
1000 Faner Drive, MC 4521

Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL  62901
+1 (618) 303-6553

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background:  sarcophagus showing Selene approaching the sleeping Endymion (New York, Metropolitan Museum, inv. 47.100.4a,b)