A Marble Sarcophagus, Roman Imperial , late 2nd/3rd Century A.D.

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

A Marble Sarcophagus, Roman Imperial
15 3/8 by 54 3/4 by 17 in. 39.1 by 139 by 43.2 cm.

of rectangular form, the front panel carved with strigillation flanking a tabula ansata engraved with eight lines of Latin inscription, each short side carved in shallow relief with two overlapping shields and a spear.

Provenance

Max Himmelheber, Baiersbronn, Germany, acquired in the 1960s
Nagel Auktionen, Stuttgart, November 4th, 2003, no. 278

Catalogue Note

The inscription translates "To the Sacred Spirits of the departed Ulpia Atticilla. Her parents Ulpius Atticus and C. Valeriana (had this made) for their sweetest daughter, who lived eight years, four months, and twenty-five days. The space (for the sarcophagus) was given by G(aia) Alexandria daughter of T(itus),"

For a typologically related child sarcophagus in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inv. no. 951, see G. Manuelli, Galleria degli Uffizi. Le Sculture. Parte I, Rome, 1958, p. 227, no. 241 (=J. Huskinson, Roman Children's Sarcophagi. Their decoration and its Social Significance, Oxford, 1996, p. 65, no. 9.37). For the form in general see Koch and Sichtermann, Römische Sarkophage, p. 74, fig. 2.5, and p. 244.