STATUARIA ROMANA ANTICA: marble funerary altar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Fletcher Fund, 1925.

Speranza

Marble funerary altar
Period: Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian
Date: ca. A.D. 14–68
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: H. 80.7 cm
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1925
Accession Number: 1925.78.29
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 162

The inscription commemorates a certain Q. Fabius Diogenes and Fabia Primigenia, who lived together for forty-seven years, and tells that the altar was set up by his freedmen, freedwomen, and household slaves. Diogenes himself was probably a freed slave who had acquired a certain wealth and position. This is reflected in the ornamentation of the altar, which is a deliberate echo of imagery used in imperial art of the Julio-Claudian period. The heavy garland suspended from rams’ heads derives from the kind of decoration found on the walls of public sanctuaries. The three types of birds surrounding the garland were all familiar from Augustan monuments: at the center, an eagle, bird of Jupiter, ruler of the gods; at the corners, swans, birds of Apollo, patron god of the emperor; and below the garland, two songbirds, symbols of bountiful nature.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings
Inscription: Inscribed to Q. Fabius Diogenes and Fabia Primigenia
References

Alexander, Christine.
1926. "Classical Inscriptions: Recent Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 21(7): pp. 177-78, fig. 3.

Richter, Gisela M.A. 1927.
Handbook of the classical collection. MMA, NY. New York: Gillis Press.

Pijoán, José, ed. 1934.
El arte romano hasta la muerte de Diocleciano: arte etrusco y arte helenistico despues de la toma de Corinto. Series: Summa artis, historia gereral del arte, v.5. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.

McCann, Anna Marguerite. 1978.
 Roman Sarcophagi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 19, fig. 7.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987.
Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 86, pp. 114-15.

Milleker, Elizabeth J., ed. 2000. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 24, pp. 42-43, 205.

Wardropper, I. B. 2003. "Le piedastal du monument du coeur de Heni II". Henri II et les Arts. Paris: Ecole du Louvre, p. 69, fig. 6.

Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 421, pp. 363, 487-88.