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Roman sarcophagus fragment is poster child for ISAW's Time & Cosmos exhibition

12/10/2016

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Time and Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity, an exciting exhibition on ancient conceptions of chronology and cosmology, is currently on show at NYU's Institute for the Study of the ancient World (ISAW).

Curated by Alexander Jones, director of the ISAW, the exhibition brings together over 100 ancient objects from museums worldwide, from Greek calendars marking stellar phenomena  to Roman sundials, astrologers' boards, zodiacal friezes, and — yes — sarcophagi.

A fragment of an early Antonine Roman sarcophagus showing two Cupids playfully interfering with a sundial is one of the exhibition's highlights.  But what business do they have on a sarcophagus?  Likely they are trying to reset the sundial, suggests Alexander Jones in a fine write-up for Hyperallergic — attempting to reverse the march of time  that has taken a life.

On loan from the Louvre, the fragment stands as the exhibition's cover image.  It does make for a lovely poster child.
Fragment of a Roman sarcophagus showing Cupids playing with a sundial (140-160 AD), marble (courtesy Musée du Louvre, Paris, Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines, © RMN-Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski Art Resource, NY).
Fragment of a Roman sarcophagus showing Cupids playing with a sundial (140–160 AD), marble (courtesy Musée du Louvre, Paris, Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines, © RMN-Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski Art Resource, NY).
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National Museum of Beirut reopens basement featuring 31 anthropoid sarcophagi, Icarus sarcophagus

12/6/2016

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This is one of the most heart-warming developments that I've ever had the pleasure of blogging.

Abu Dhabi's The National reports that the National Museum of Beirut has — after 41 years of closure following the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 — reopened its basement galleries.

Finding itself directly on the infamous Green Line that bisected Beirut during the Civil War, the museum and its objects were immediately imperiled by civil strife and looting.  Read the full report in The National of the extreme measures to which then director of antiquities Maurice Chehab went in order to safeguard the collection in the basement.  The story is astonishing.

The highlight of the collection is the world's largest series of anthropoid sarcophagi:  31 in all, all from Phoenician Sidon and carved between the 6th and 4th centuries BC.

Also figuring prominently in the reopened galleries is a fragment of a Roman sarcophagus from Beirut itself depicting Icarus standing beside the wing-crafting Daedalus, according to the Daily Mail.  The scene is fantastically rare:  I know of no other Roman sarcophagus that shows it.
Anthropoid sarcophagi in the National Museum of Beirut.  Photo Anne-Marie Afeiche.
Anthropoid sarcophagi in the National Museum of Beirut. Photo Anne-Marie Afeiche.
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Berlin's Bode Museum online:  360º panoramic tour of the museum's sarcophagi

2/15/2016

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Berlin's gorgeous Bode Museum has launched itself online.  Virtual visitors can now navigate at will through a full 360º panoramic tour of the entire museum, complete with clickable objects.

This panoramic tour includes room 115, the sarcophagus room, offering a nice assemblage of late 3rd- and early 4th-century metropolitan specimens.  Some, but not all, of these feature early Christian imagery — the reason, one suspects, that they were purchased for the museum's 'Byzantine' collection in the first place.

Standouts include:
  • a curious bucolic piece with scenes of grape- and olive-harvesting interrupted by an unexpected equestrian,
  • a Jonah sarcophagus,
  • another important early Christian piece with the (very rare) figures of Cain and Abel,
  • and a strigillated piece whose portraits are unfinished:  not only have their facial features been left uncarved (which is very common), but also — and this is very unusual — their hands too.  (For another unusual example of hands left uncarved, see my blog post on a similar piece in the Capitoline.)

Below is a still screenshot taken from the virtual tour.  Click on it to explore the room and objects yourself.
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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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Hercules sarcophagus reinstalled at the Saint Louis Art Museum

11/23/2014

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Following several years of renovation, the Saint Louis Art Museum's collection of ancient art has recently reopened with a fresh face, thanks to reinstallation by Assistant Curator Lisa Çakmak.

The Roman gallery now prominently features a fragment of a sarcophagus showing the Twelve Labors of Hercules (inv. 138:1987).

The proportions of this Antonine fragment — its 1.42 meters must represent less than half of the original length — are absolutely massive.  This was a monumental piece indeed.

Its composition also departs from the standard in unexpected ways.  Most noticeably, our hero here turns his torso to the left rather than right when bludgeoning the Hydra (contrast with the pieces in Mantua and Rome's Palazzo Altemps) — a choice that quirkily interrupts the narrative's rightward flow.

Fragment of a sarcophagus showing the Twelve Labors of Hercules.  Second century AD.  Saint Louis Art Museum, inv. 138:1987.
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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)