Ancient Roman statuary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: IL SARCOFAGO DI BACCO (Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1955) -- Presumably found in Roma (McCann, 1978, p. 94) -- ALBERONI -- Sarcofago Alberoni, Roma -- Purchased by the Metropolitan from His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, Badminton House.

Speranza

Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Bacco and the Four Seasons
Period: Late Imperial, Gallienic
Date: ca. A.D. 260–270
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: Overall: 86.4 x 215.9 x 92.1 cm
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1955
Accession Number: 55.11.5
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 162

This highly ornate and extremely well-preserved Roman marble sarcophagus came to the Metropolitan Museum from the collection of the dukes of Beaufort and was formerly displayed in their country seat, Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England.

An inscription on the unfinished back of the sarcophagus records that it was installed there in 1733.

In contrast to the rough and unsightly back, the sides and front of the sarcophagus are decorated with forty human and animal figures carved in high relief.

The central figure is that of BACCO seated on a panther, but he is somewhat overshadowed by four larger standing figures who represent the four Seasons (from left to right, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall).

The figures are unusual in that the Seasons are usually portrayed as women, but here they are shown as sturdy youths.

Around these five central figures are placed other Bacchic figures and cultic objects, all carved at a smaller scale.

On the rounded ends of the sarcophagus are two other groups of large figures, similarly intermingled with lesser ones.

On the left end, Mother Earth is portrayed reclining on the ground.

Mother Earth is accompanied by a satyr and a youth carrying fruit.

On the right end, a bearded male figure, probably to be identified with the personification of a river-god, reclines in front of two winged youths, perhaps representing two additional Seasons.

The sarcophagus is an exquisite example of Roman funerary art, displaying all the virtuosity of the workshop where it was carved.

The marble comes from a quarry in the eastern Mediterranean and was probably shipped to Rome, where it was worked.

Only a very wealthy and powerful person would have been able to commission and purchase such a sarcophagus, and it was probably made for a member of one of the old aristocratic families in Rome itself.

The subjects - the triumph of Bacco and the Four (Male) Seasons - are unlikely, however, to have had any special significance for the deceased, particularly as it is clear that the design was copied from a sculptor's pattern book.

Another sarcophagus, now in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Kassel, Germany, has the same composition of Dionysos flanked by the four Seasons, although the treatment and carving of the figures is quite different.

On the Badminton sarcophagus the figures are carved in high relief and so endow the crowded scene with multiple areas of light and shade, allowing the eye to wander effortlessly from one figure to another.

One must also imagine that certain details were highlighted with colour and even gilding, making the whole composition a visual tour de force.

Very few Roman sarcophagi of this quality have survived.

Although this sarcophagus lacks its lid, the fact that it was found in the early eighteenth century and soon thereafter installed in Badminton means that it has been preserved almost intact and only a few of the minor extremities are now missing.

Provenance:
Presumably found in Rome (McCann 1978, p. 94).

Purchased by the Third Duke of Beaufort from Cardinal Giulio Alberoni (1664-1752) in Rome, the first recorded owner of the sarcophagus.


1727-28, brought to England from Italy.

By 1733, installed in Badminton.

From around 1727, collection of the Dukes of Beaufort.

Acquired June 10, 1955, purchased from His Grace the Duke of Beaufort, Badminton, Gloucestershire, England.

References:

Sitwell, Osbert. 1942.
"The Red Folder."
Burlington Magazine 80: 117, n. 1, ill. facing p. 118.

1955.
"Eighty-Fifth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1954-1955."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14(1): p. 15.

Alexander, C.
1955. "A Roman Sarcophagus from ROMA and Badminton"
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 14(2): pp. 39-47.

Vermeule, C. C. 1955.
"Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis:
Ancient Marbles in Great Britain." American Journal of Archaeology 59: 130.

Matz, F. 1958.
Ein römisches Meister Werk: Der Jahreszeiten Sarkophag Badminton New York. Berlin: W. De Gruyter.

Turcan, R. 1966.
Les sarcophages romains à représentations dionysiaques: Essai de chronologie et d'histoire religieuse. Paris: E. de Boccard, pp. 278-80 and passim.

Hoving, Thomas P.F. 1970.
"Director's Choice."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28(5): pp. 206-7.

McCann, A.
1978. Roman Sarcophagi in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 17, pp. 21-22, 24, 44, 48, 84, 90, 94-106, 135, 137, figs. 109-12, 118-22.

Sande, Siri. 1981.
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Metropolitan Museum Journal 16: pp. 69-73, figs. 20, 23, 25-26.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1986.
Vol. 3, "Dionysos/Bacco," p. 550, no. 117, pl. 438. Zürich: Artemis.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 122, pp. 156-57.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1990. Vol. 5,
 "Kairoi/Tempora Anni," p. 906, no. 156. Zürich: Artemis.

Ramage, N.H., and A. Ramage. 1991.
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Kleiner, D.E.E. 1992.
Roman Sculpture. New Haven:
Yale University Press, p. 392, fig. 362.

Bartman, E. 1993.
 "Carving the Badminton Sarcophagus."
Metropolitan Museum Journal 28: pp. 57-71, figs. 1-4, 6-7, 9-10.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7, "Tellus," p. 881, no. 23, pl. 607. Zürich: Artemis.

Zanker, P., and B.C. Ewald. 2004.
Mit mythen Leben: Die Bilderwelt der römischen Sarkophage. Munich: Hirmer, pp. 169, 170, 272, n. 107, fig. 156.

Picon, C. A., et al. 2007.
Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 470, pp. 400-1, 497.