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.
"The Myth of Marsyas: Pieces of a
Sculptural Jigsaw."
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.
Cambridge Illustrated History
of Roman Art.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 238-39, fig. 9.31.
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.
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