Marine thiasos from the so-called Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus
- Title:
- Marine thiasos from the so-called Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
late 2nd to early 1st c. BCE
2008 (image)
- Site:
- Rome, Italy (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Rome, Italy (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0008
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 289
289 (sticker front)
8 - File Name:
- CCC_0008.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 78 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Roman
- Style/Period:
- Roman Republican
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Nereids (Greek mythology)
Triton (Greek deity)
Cupid (Roman deity) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 78.7 x 149.9 x 3.8-11.4 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast panel of a section of the marine thiasos relief from the so-called Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, housed in Munich. Overall, the scene depicts the wedding of Neptune and Amphitrite, and is populated by tritons, nereids, and a number of sea creatures. The relief series formed part of a rectangular sculpture base that has been associated with a sculptural group that stood in the Temple of Neptune in Rome. This cast panel contains a group that belongs second from the viewer's left on the long side of the rectangular base. Here, a fully draped female figure sits on the back of a hippocamp with her body facing front and her head turned in profile looking right (viewer's). In her right hand she holds a torch across her torso and in her extended left hand she holds a second torch. She wears a cloth headdress. As a torch bearer in a wedding procession, this figure is identified as the mother of the bride, Doris (Kähler, 17; Stilp, 39). The hippocamp swims toward the right, turning his head to look behind him. His snaky tail curls behind him and supports a chubby cupid on one of its coils. The cupid holds the reins of the taurocamp to the viewer's left (contained in ID no. 22). At the far right of this panel, a triton, whose body is turned to front with his head in profile facing left, plays a kithara. His torso is bare, drapery twists around his waist, and snaky legs and wing-like fins make up his lower half. This cast panel is in good condition. All marine thiasos cast panels are accounted for in Cornell's cast collection. The sculptors of this scene appear to have drawn inspiration from the reliefs of the Altar of Zeus at Pergamon. Another multi-panel relief from this base depicts a military census and a suovetaurilia (the sacrifice of a pig, ram, and bull) and is among the earliest of preserved Roman historical reliefs. It is held in the Louvre (Ma 975).
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 239 - Bibliography:
- Florian Stilp, Mariage et Suovetaurilia: Etude sur le soi-disant 'Autel de Domitius Ahenobarbus' (Rome: Giorgio Bretschneider, 2001)
Heinz Kähler, Seethiasos und Census. Monumenta Artis Romanae. (Berlin: Verlag Gebr. Mann, 1966)
Nancy H. Ramage and Andrew Ramage, Roman Art, 3rd ed. (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2000), 75-76
online catalog at www.louvre.fr - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Munich, Glyptothek (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.