ROMAN ANTIQUITIES at the Metropolitan Museum

Speranza

RUNERARY ART flourished under the Ancient Romans and included works made for all levels of society and in every style.

PORTRAIT RELIEFS and marble cinerary urns were created not just for ROMAN CITIZENS and freeborn provincials but also for freed slaves, who proudly proclaimed their new status.

DURING THE second century A. D., large and elaborate stone sacrophagi became the standard form of tomb for the well-to-do, but examples are known that were made for slaves as well as for emperors.

PROVINCIAL art is best exemplified by those funerary monuments that depict either families surrounded by symbols of their daily lives or FALLEN SOLDIERS commemorated by their comrades.

Those representations are not in the highly-contrived style of the sarcophagi decorated with mythological scenes that are featured therein.

USUALLY, a tomb was accompanied by an inscription recording the names, age, family, and profession of the decased.

But in addition to factual content, they might express sentiments of loss, proferring a PERSONAL TOUCH to each monument.