E X H I B I T I O N N O T E S R E T H I N K I N G T H E R O M A N S NEW VIEWS OF A N C I E N T S CUL P TURE CHECKLIST OF THE EXHIBITION Exhibition entries in 1 PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTUS 4 PORTRAIT OF AGRIPPINA 9 PORTRAIT OF A BOY IN 4 HEAD OF A SATYR chronological order 27-10 BC THE YOUNGER THE GUISE OF A DEITY GRASPED BY THE HAIR Marble (probably Parian); ca. AD 40 late first/second century ad ca. ad 150 h. 9 9/16 in. (24.3 cm.) Marble set in a baroque Marble; h. 7 in. (17.8 cm.) Marble; h. 10 5/8 in. (27.2 cm.) w. 8 in. (20.4 cm.) Scagliola bust of the early w. 6 in. (15.2 cm.) w. 6 15/16 in. (17.7 cm.) d. 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) 18th century; d. 6 5/8 in. (16.9 cm.) d. 6 3/4 in. (17.2 cm.) Museum Appropriation Fund h. bust 20 1/8 in. (51.2 cm) Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke Museum Appropriation Fund Acc. no. 26.160 h. head 12 in. (30.5 cm) Acc. no. 03.009 Acc. no. 26.165 Provenience: probably w.8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm) Provenience: found in Italy Provenience: unknown from Italy d. 9 1/4 in. (23.7 cm) Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 20 Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 23 Ridgway, B. S. Catalogue of Gift of Mrs. Murray S. the Classical Collection, Danforth 10 TORSO OF A 5 FRAGMENT FROM Museum of Art, Rhode Island Acc. no. 56.097 FIGHTING GIANT A SARCOPHAGUS School of Design: Classical Provenience: unknown AD II7-I38 ca. AD 200 Sculpture. Providence: 1972 Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 33 Marble; h. 21 in. (53.3 cm.) Marble; h. 7 in. (17.6 cm.) (hereafter, Ridgway 1972), w. 14 in. (35.5 cm.) w. 8 in. (20.4 cm.) cat. no. 32 5 MALE FIGURE d. 8 5/8 in. (22.1 cm.) d. 3 11/16 (9.3 cm.) first century ad Museum Appropriation Fund Gift of Miss Charlotte F. Dailey 2 FRAGMENT FROM A VASE Marble; h. 44 7/8 in. (114 cm.) Acc. no. 25.064 Acc. no. 02.004 early first century ad w. 21 1/2 in, (54.6 cm.) Provenience: unknown Provenience: unknown Marble; h. 12 in. (30.5 cm.) d. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm.) Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 25 Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 40 w. 6 1/16 in. (15.4 cm.) Museum Appropriation Fund d. 2 7/8 in. (7.4 cm.) Acc. no. 26.159 II MALE FIGURE IN THE 6 RESTORATION OF LEGS, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Provenience: unknown GUISE OF HERMES SUPPORT, AND BASE D. Sharpe Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 13 early second century ad FOR MALE FIGURE IN Acc. no. 26.270 Marble; h. 36 1/2 in. (92.6 cm.) THE GUISE OF HERMES Provenience: unknown; 6 BENCH SUPPORT w. 16 3/8 in. (41.3 cm.) 18th century ex. coll. Florence Koehler first century ad d. it 1/4 in. (2.8.8 cm.) Marble and plaster; Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 29 Marble; h. 14 7/8 in. (37.4 cm.) Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke h. 34 1/2 in. (87.6 cm.) w. 17 9/16 in. (44.6 cm.) Acc. no. 03.008 w. 21 1/4 in. (54 cm.) 3 PORTRAIT OF A d.3 1/16 in. (7.8 cm.) Provenience: said to be d.16 in. (40.6 cm.) JULIO-CLAUDIAN Museum Appropriation Fund from Italy Museum Collection early first century ad and Special Gift Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 16 Separated from ancient Marble; h. 14 1/4 in. (36.4 cm.) Acc. no. 23,352 fragment Male Figure w. 8 13/16 in. (22.4 cm.) Provenience: unknown 12 YOUTHFUL FIGURE in the Guise of Hermes d. 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm.) Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 46 WEARING A TORQUE (acc. no. 03.008) in 1953 Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke AD 138-192 Acc. no. 22,211 7 CINERARY URN Marble; h. 18 11/16 in. (47.5 cm.) Provenience: unknown first century ad w.10 1/8 in. (25.7 cm.) Ridgway 1972, cat. no, 31 Marble; h. 18 3/16 in. (46.2 cm.) d. 8 5/8 in. (21.8 cm.) w. 12 3/16 in. (31 cm.) Museum Appropriation Fund d. 12 1/8 in. (30.8 cm.) Acc. no. 26.158 Gift of Marshall H. Gould Provenience: unknown Acc. no. 46.083 a-b Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 36 Provenience: from a necropolis near the basilica of St. Paul 13 FEMALE FIGURE on the Via Ostiense, Rome second century ad, after a (tomb Iv e) fifth-century bc prototype Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 44 Marble; h. 37 3/4 in. (95.8 cm.) w. 14 15/16 in. (38 cm.) 8 HEAD OF AN AMAZON d. 8 15/16 in. (22.7 cm.) AD 70-90 Museum Appropriation Fund Marble; h. 10 in. (25.3 cm.) and Special Gift w. 8 3/4 in. (22.4 cm.) Acc. no. 23.351 d. 10 1/4 in. (26.1 cm.) Provenience: unknown Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 14 Acc. no. 01.005 Provenience: unknown Ridgway 1972, cat. no. 12 Cover Exh. no. 10 to rs0 o f a fighting giant (25.064) Photograph by Del Bogart. PREFACE R E T H I N K I N G THE R OMA NS NEW VIEWS OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE This gallery guide has been created to accompany The gallery guide includes six short essays. The the exhibition Rethinking the Romans: New Views first offers a history of risd’s Roman sculpture of Ancient Sculpture at the Museum of Art, Rhode collection, which was largely formed during the Island School of Design (risd). The installation first thirty years of the twentieth century. Brunilde presents risd’s exceptional Roman sculpture col­ Sismondo Ridgway has written about interactions lection in light of new scholarship, which stresses between Greece and Rome during the late meaning, use, and context within Roman culture. Republic and the cultural background that led to the demand for luxury arts in marble. Mary Traditionally, Roman marble sculptures of mytho­ Hollinshead explores the question of “originals” logical figures and other ideal subjects have been and “copies” and Roman views on repetition and considered purely mechanical copies of earlier multiplicity. Next is an essay on how Roman Greek originals. This has reinforced a deeply held patrons themselves influenced Roman sculpture; view that Roman artists lacked the creativity of followed by conservator Kent Severson’s discussion their Greek predecessors. The last two decades, of the treatment of ancient statuary. Lastly, Mary however, have seen the wholesale reassessment of Hollinshead considers attitudes toward fragmen­ this belief. One of the leading proponents of the tary sculpture since the Renaissance and the ways reinterpretation of Roman sculpture is Brunilde in which these perceptions have influenced the Sismondo Ridgway, who authored the catalogue understanding of individual works. There follow of risd’s classical sculpture in 1972. Her Jerome six entries on selected objects from the exhibition. Lectures, delivered in 1981 at the University of Michigan and in 1982 at the American Academy We invite you to review the guide and enjoy this in Rome (collected and published as Roman opportunity to examine the Museum’s Roman Copies of Greek Sculpture: The Problem of the sculpture collection, newly cleaned, mounted, and Originals. Ann Arbor: 1984), showed that reconsidered for the first time in years. attempts by scholars to find lost Greek “originals” behind the many extant Roman “copies” in fact GEORGINA E. BORROMEO may have been unproductive. Professor Ridgway, Associate Curator of Ancient Art and other scholars, have made a clear case for the The risd Museum necessary consideration of Roman sculpture in Project Director, Rethinking the Romans light of its uniquely Roman aspects, particularly context and function. The new thinking also CRISPIN CORRADO GOULET explores the concepts of imitation and emulation, Doctoral Candidate, Brown University, and themes that apply not only to these “copies,” but Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Intern to portraits, historical reliefs, and sarcophagi, at The risd Museum works touted as being among the Romans’ greatest and most original contributions to art. risd’s col­ lection, famous in national and international scholarly circles, aptly demonstrates these recent debates, which have brought a new understanding of Roman sculpture, and, in turn, a reinterpreta­ tion of risd’s pieces themselves. 3 GEORGINA E. BORROMEO THE FORMATION OF R ISD ’S ROMAN SCULPTURE COLLECTION The Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of footsteps, Mrs. Radeke and her brothers Jesse, Design is home to an exceptional collection of Stephen, and Manton Metcalf offered endowment Roman marble sculpture, consisting primarily funds, gave land and buildings, and donated the of portraits, male figures, and funerary objects. money to erect new structures for risd. Mrs. These holdings are familiar to scholars worldwide Radeke served as risd’s acting director (1907-08), mainly through publication in 1972 of the then as president of the Board of Trustees of the 1 Carla Mathes Woodward, Catalogue of the Classical Collection: Sculpture, Corporation (1913-31). Keenly aware of the “Acquisition, Preservation, authored by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway. Recent major role played by the Museum collection in the and Education: A History of significant exhibitions on Roman art, such as education of students at the School, Mrs. Radeke the Museum,” in Franklin W. Robinson and Carla Mathes Yale University’s I, Claudia: Women in Ancient sought to fill gaps in the holdings by making gifts Woodward, eds., A Handbook Rome (1996) and the Worcester Art Museum’s of funds for acquisitions. She herself also bought of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Antioch: The Lost Ancient City (2000), recognized works of art, including Greek, Roman, and Islamic Providence: 19855, p. 33. the strength of the collection by including a num­ objects, American furniture, and American and 2 Elsie S. Bronson, “The ber of risd pieces. Many of the individual objects, French drawings and paintings, which she then Rhode Island School of Design: however, have been hidden away in storage for gave to the Museum. Although she was committed A Half-Century Record years. It is hoped that this exhibition will allow to enlarging the collection as a whole, she took (1878-1928),” 1928, n.p. our local audience to become familiar with the a special interest in developing the classical (typescript prepared for the 50th anniversary of risd; collection once again. collection. collection risd Library); see also Woodward, op. cit., p. 29. The risd Museum’s collection of Roman sculpture L. Earle Rowe served as the third director of the 3 Ibid., p. 33. is largely the result of the vision and dedication Museum from 1912 until his sudden death in of Mrs. Gustav Radeke and L. Earle Rowe. 1937. Rowe believed that three major purposes Mrs. Radeke (née Eliza Greene Metcalf) was the characterized museum activity: acquisition, preser­ daughter of Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, one of vation, and education.1 He pursued an active risd’s founders (in 1877), and her husband, Jesse acquisition policy while at risd, building the core Metcalf, who donated funds to construct the of the Museum’s collection during his long tenure. Waterman Building to house the growing School His approach was to maintain two “lists”: one of and Museum (1893). Following in their parents’ objects to be purchased when “good examples were offered” under favorable terms and another of rare objects, “supreme of their kind, to be taken at the first opportunity.”2 Rowe’s goal was to Mrs. Gustav Radeke, President gather an encyclopedic collection of top-quality of the Board of Trustees, risd, 1913-31. Portrait in art-historical objects at risd. During the 1920s crayon by Stacy Tolman, and 193os, he acquired fifteen thousand objects American, 1860-1935. Gift representing many cultures and eras.3 of Mrs. Gustav Radeke, acc. no. 20.538. Photograph An archaeologist by training, Rowe shared Mrs. by Del Bogart. Radeke’s passion for classical antiquities. Together they purposefully set about acquiring Greek and Roman vases, bronzes, and marble sculptures. They chose artworks with the intention of gather­ ing a representation of the variety of objects pro­ duced by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In this task they were aided by Edward Perry Warren, an American art collector and dealer living in England. Even before Rowe came to risd, Mrs. Radeke had already enlisted Warren’s aid. The letters exchanged by Mrs. Radeke and Warren, many of which are housed in the risd Archive, shed light on Mrs. Radeke’s intentions regarding the Museum’s classical holdings. 4 In 1900, Mrs. Radeke entrusted Warren with the dual responsibility of locating objects for the Museum that would draw forth the financial con­ tributions of others towards their purchase and of finding pieces that Mrs. Radeke herself could buy for donation to the Museum. Warren met immedi­ ate success with the latter charge. Many of the L. Earle Rowe, Director of the earliest acquisitions of Roman sculpture to enter Museum of Art, risd, 1912-37. Photograph by risd’s collection came as gifts from Mrs. Radeke. Winslow, 1926 (negative cour­ Between 1901 and 1905, she donated a head of tesy of the risd Archive). an Amazon (acc. no. 01.005), a male figure in the guise of Hermes (acc. no. 03.008), a head of a youth in the guise of a deity (acc. no. 03.009), and a head of a woman (acc. no. 05.021). Over the next ten years she continued to be the Museum’s primary donor of classical sculpture, giving a stat­ uette of a young girl (acc. no. 13.1478) in 1913 and a lion-head waterspout (acc. no. 14.039) the following year. Mrs. Radeke donated objects that she believed would be popular with the Museum’s growing audience. She also chose artworks for the Museum that appealed to her aesthetically and that she perceived as being useful to students at the School. bequest6 in 1916, which increased the Museum’s 4 Warren correspondence files, In a letter to Warren of December 18, 1915, Mrs. risd Archive. annual acquisitions budget from $25,000 to Radeke wrote: $40,000. Taking full advantage of these circum­ 5 Ibid. The fragments of the Niobe work appealed very stances, Rowe bought many works of art for the 6 This became the Museum greatly to me. Some of the single fragments are very Museum during and after the war.7 Acquisition Fund, which has beautiful. The Committee who looked at them with been added to by anonymous me … suggested that I should ask you whether you In 1921, the Museum purchased two large exam­ donors over the years. thought it was possible by spending an equal amount ples of funerary art: a lidded Asiatic sarcophagus 7 Bronson, op. cit., n.p.; see to secure other pieces of Greek sculpture that would bring home more adequately to our students the carved with scenes from the Trojan War on one also Woodward, op. cit., p. 24. beauty of the work. Personally I am willing to spend side (acc. no. 21.074) and the aforementioned 8 Mrs. Radeke was instrumen­ up to — for the sculpture if in your opinion it is front and lid of a sarcophagus depicting the tal in acquiring this piece for the best in the line of sculpture that we are likely to the Museum. She was already slaughter of Niobe’s children (acc. no. 21.076).8 be able to acquire.4 arranging with E. P. Warren The Museum also acquired five nude male figures to bring it to risd as early The Niobe fragments about which Mrs. Radeke in various scales and poses: the figure of Dionysos as 1915. See letter from Mrs. Radeke to E. P. Warren, wrote in 1915 eventually entered the Museum col­ or Apollo (acc. no. 20.039), the Bebenburg Youth December 18, 1915, in the lection in 1921: they form part of the front and lid (acc. no. 23.342), the torso of a fighting giant Warren correspondence files, of a sarcophagus (acc. no. 21.076). Superbly carved (acc. no. 25.064), a youthful figure wearing a risd Archive. with two registers of dramatic scenes, the piece has torque (acc. no. 26.158), and a large male figure justified Mrs. Radeke’s choice. Students may still (acc. no. 26.159). To augment Mrs. Radeke’s be seen sketching and studying the work today. donation of a portrait of a Julio-Claudian man (acc. no. 22.211), the Museum added to its hold­ Mrs. Radeke seems to have directed Warren to ings a portrait of a man in the Republican style find the best objects available. In a letter to Mrs. (acc. no. 25.063) and a portrait of the emperor Radeke of May 10, 1918, Warren wrote: “So far Augustus (acc. no. 26.160). The Museum system­ I have been guided by your remark about the ‘best atically acquired various types of relief sculpture things’ and by the fact that chances [works of art], as well: a bench support (acc. no. 23.352), a col­ when they occur in war, are cheaper.”5 With umn with vine motif (acc. no. 26.156), fragments the onset of World War I, the art market became from a funerary altar (acc. no. 26.157), and a flooded with works being sold by European collec­ relief of a priest burning incense (acc. no. 26.161). tors in need of ready cash. This coincided with Edward Perry Warren and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lyra Brown Nickerson’s three-million-dollar Sharpe also made gifts of objects. 5 Aproximately half of the Roman sculptures Given the strength of the Roman sculpture collec­ entered the Museum collection in the 1920s, but tion, curatorial attention is now focused on the the end of the decade saw a slowing in the growth conservation and further study of particular of this area. In 1928, Warren ceased to be an art objects. Preparing for this exhibition has provided dealer. The Depression years were beginning. Mrs. the impetus and opportunity to reassess them in Radeke died in 1931. Rowe continued as director light of recent scholarship. Careful scrutiny of the of risd, but with the nucleus of the classical col­ sculptures as works of art in themselves and as lection already formed, he turned his attention functional components in the public, domestic, to other areas. The few objects that subsequently and funerary spheres of Roman life brings a fuller entered the Roman sculpture collection were understanding of their significance and a renewed intended to amplify its strengths. In the 1950s, gratitude to the perspicacious individuals who Mrs. Murray S. Danforth, Mrs. Radeke’s niece built the collection over the years. and successor as President of the Board of Trustees, donated two important Roman portraits GEORGINA E. BORROMEO to complement the three acquired in the 1920s: a Associate Curator of Ancient Art portrait of the emperor Nero’s mother, Agrippina The risd Museum the Younger (acc. no. 56.097), and a portrait of the emperor Hadrian (acc. no. 59.050). In 1971, a Palmyrene portrait of a man (acc. no. 71.167) was added to the Museum holdings. Provincial in origin, this likeness of a Roman citizen provides a sharp contrast to the heads of emperors and persons within the imperial circle in risd’s collec­ tion. In 1988, the Museum purchased an inscribed marble slab bearing the text of a directive from the emperor Hadrian to the citizens of Macedonia concerning Roman provincial administration (acc. no. 1988.060). Its date corresponds to a day sometime between December 10, 136, and December 10, 137, of the modern era. 6 BRUNILDE SISMONDO RIDGWAY A PASSION FOR MARBLE GRECO'ROMAN RELATIONSHIPS IN LATE HELLENISTIC AND EARLY IMPERIAL TIMES 1 In my original publication of the piece (Catalogue of the Classical Collection, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design: Sculpture. Providence: 1972, cat. no. 46, p. 113, ill. pp. 227-28), I had suggested that it belonged to either a throne or a table. Robert Cohon, who has written defini­ tively on the subject of deco­ rated table supports (1984), kindly tells me (letter of June 13, 2000) that he believes the slab to be too small for a table and more likely to have once supported a bench. On p. 13 of his work referred to above (R. H. Cohon, “Greek and Roman Stone Table Supports with Decorative Reliefs,” PhD Dissertation, New York University, umi, 1984), he lists the height of bench supports Exh. no. 6 bench support, side view (23.352) as ranging between 11 3/4 in. (29.5 cm.) and 18 in. (45.8 cm.), reaching a maximum of A marble slab (acc. no. 23.352) in The risd One may find nothing extraordinary in a stone 18 3/4 in. (47.5 cm.). Any Museum’s collection of Greek and Roman antiqui­ bench - Italian parks seem full of them. Yet for support higher than the maxi­ ties may seem rather insignificant by comparison the Romans of the Late Republican period, any mum should belong to a table, any lower than 14 3/4 in. with other impressive holdings in the galleries, yet object in marble was an expensive item, often rely­ (37.5 cm.) to a bench. The to the Romans of the Augustan period (27 bc- ing on imported material from the Greek main­ risd piece is 14 3/4 in. (37.4 ad 14), it was an item of luxury, an expression of land, the Greek islands, Asia Minor and Anatolia, cm.) high. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Cohon for his advice. status, a symbol with some religious import, and even North Africa.2 By approximately 50 bc, mar­ a link to earlier times and foreign places. ble quarries had been discovered in Italy itself at 2 See, for instance, mentions of the Punic (Carthaginian) Luna (modern Carrara), but their exploitation did The slab is decorated on each long face with an columns of the Apollo Palatinus not replace the desire for foreign imports. Perhaps complex, Rome (Propertius identical motif of facing S-shaped volutes framing the Greek masters working on Italian soil pre­ 2.31.3; cf. Ovid, Tristia, a vertical stab with lotus buds. One of the short 3.1.61-62; “foreign” columns). ferred the medium with which they were most sides carries additional embellishment: a fierce- On the various colored mar­ familiar, or the quality of the various Greek stones bles used by the Romans, see looking head, perhaps a mask, with forehead was considered superior, which implies a good M. L. Anderson, ed., Radiance horns; animal ears; rolling eyes; prominent cheek­ in Stone. Sculptures in Colored deal of connoisseurship on the part of the Roman Marble from the Museo bones; lips parted as if in utterance; a long, deco­ customers, who seem to have been able to differ­ Nazionale Romano. Atlanta rative mustache; and a very long beard terminating entiate among these and to have preferred some and Rome: 1989; these stones, in a floral swag [ill. p. 8]. In profile, this side is however, would have been for statuary, others for utilitarian objects.3 seen to curve inward from the top, whereas the enormously expensive for most private individuals. opposite short side is straight and plain. The spiral Not all marble was imported as raw material to be motif on the long faces is shifted toward the deco­ fashioned at destination. The recovery of the cargo rated end, and one pattern is in lower relief than of several Mediterranean shipwrecks has dramati­ the other. The object is clearly a support of some cally confirmed how much the so-called decorative kind, probably for a bench, of which it formed arts of the Romans depended on direct imports of the proper right leg.1 7 Exh. no. 6 bench support, frontal view (23.352) 8 finished products from Greece. In particular, the recent conservation, restudy, and exhibition of the finds from the Mahdia Wreck (a ship lost off the coast of Mahdia, Tunisia, ca. 70-60 bc) have con­ clusively and startlingly shown that several types of luxury objects that had seemed typically Roman were instead first produced in Greece, to be even­ tually copied and developed on Italian soil.4 The ship that foundered near Mahdia was proba­ bly pushed off course by a storm while on its way to one of the Italian ports. That it came from a Greek source was shown by its cargo: an enor­ 3 It is now officially acknowl­ mous load of architectural elements in Pentelic edged by scholars that judging marble, therefore from Athens. There were over the provenience of any given sixty column shafts of various sizes, as well as stone purely by visual observa­ tion (as was formerly done) numerous Ionic and Doric capitals and a few is thoroughly inadequate and others imaginatively carved with spiky leaves, that only isotopic analysis and other scientific methods can volutes, and busts of mythical horned lion-griffins determine the source, asmosia, (Chimaera capitals). Among the nonarchitectural the society for the study of objects were tall marble vases (about the height of marble and other stones in antiquity, is making great a Mediterranean man) with figured scenes carved progress in this direction. on their exterior surfaces. Equally impressive were 4 See G. Hellenkemper Salies elaborate marble candelabra consisting of several et al., Das Wrack. Der antike parts to be joined together. The assembled objects Schiffsfund vom Mahdia Exh. no. 2 FRAGMENT FROM A VASE (26.270) would have been even taller than the aforesaid (Kataloge des Reinischen Landesmuseum, vol. 1.1-2). vases. In addition, marble roundels carried busts Bonn: 1994, two vols.; and of mythological creatures: satyrs and their female “Neue Forschungen zum Stone objects recovered from the sea after any counterparts, perhaps maenads also. These were Schiffsfund von Mahdia,” probably meant to be hung on walls as room or length of time are likely to be heavily damaged Bonner Jahrbiicher, no. 196 by corrosive salt and marine animals; but these (1996), pp. 199-337, esP- portico decoration. Statuary in the round included “Das Wrack. Eine Bilanz nach pieces may be visualized in their pristine condition small flying Eros figures bearing torches. Their zwei Jahren,” pp. 199-219. because so many later examples of their types For a summary account, cf. hollow bronze bodies were receptacles for oil; sus­ have been found on Italian soil or are depicted in B. S. Ridgway, “The wreck pended in the air, they could be lit. A whole series Roman wall paintings. From these sources, it is off Mahdia, Tunisia, and the of bronze ornaments for couches had engraved art-market in early 1st century known that the tall candelabra usually stood B.C.,” Journal of Roman letters to assist in the assembling of the parts. indoors, often paired on either side of a doorway, Archaeology, vol. 8 (1995), In brief, the Mahdia cargo contained the earliest whereas the marble vessels adorned open-air pp. 340-47. examples of what had previously been known spaces. Some of them were probably turned into mainly from the private Campanian villas of fountains, the water spilling from their outcurved Herculaneum, Pompeii, and other Roman cities rims to form shimmering curtains that enlivened destroyed by the Vesuvian eruption in ad 79. the relief figures behind. Another shipwreck, which foundered around 60 bc The Romans loved such objects with a passion. in Greek waters near Antikythera, has yielded Some sources have even talked of a Late Republican greater-than-lifesize marble statues of Homeric “marble boom” that did not abate until well into figures - Odysseus, Achilles, and probably other the second century of our era. Not all of these heroes - as well as replicas and adaptations of items were purely decorative, however. The marble some famous sculptures from the Classical and vases - whose shape derived from terracotta con­ Hellenistic periods, including Herakles, Aphrodite, tainers used in banquets for the mixing of wine and Hermes. They, too, would have served to and water - were often appropriately adorned embellish gardens and grottoes, as shown by the with nymphs and satyrs, creatures who accompa­ finds from the cave at Sperlonga, an ancient site nied Dionysos/Bacchus, the God of Wine, and between Rome and Naples. were commonly associated with untamed nature. This decorative program suggested that the gar­ dens in which the objects stood were potentially 9 inhabited by such divine beings. The repertoire of relief, hung on the walls. Tables stood on the images was traditional, probably based on books sculpted legs of griffins or panthers, animals asso­ of patterns - illustrations, as it were, of stock ciated with the God of Wine. Vegetal patterns of subjects that could be ordered from workshops twisting vines appeared on pedestals and other by patrons - taken from Classical and Hellenistic supports, an allusion to the freely regenerative votive reliefs. Various figural types could be com­ powers of nature, even if nothing wild and unre­ 5 See Ridgway, op. cit., 1972, bined in different arrangements to narrate different strained could be seen in the well ordered flowerbeds pp. 78-79, cat. no. 29. For stories. The workshops that produced such objects and carefully arrayed bushes and trees of these the Salpion Krater (Naples, extrapolated and added at will with an eclecticism villa gardens.6 National Museum, no. 6673), see D. Grassinger, Römische that should be seen as liberating and innovative, Marmorkratere. Mainz: 1991, rather than as a sign of limited creativity and With this picture in mind, we may now return to PP- 175-77, no. 19, figs. the bench leg with which we started. Because it imagination. Although we call them “Neo-Attic,” 22-25; cf- Grassinger’s p. 186, was of marble, it indicated that its owner was a no. 27, for the risd fragment, these carvings were made by masters of different person of taste and relative wealth, thus conferring dated to the Claudian period ethnicities, and they continued to be produced for (ad 41-54). upon him a certain social status in the eyes of the at least two or three centuries. visitors (clientes) who were a standard feature of 6 For two such objects in The risd Museum collection, see The risd Museum owns a fragment (acc. no. Roman life. Its decoration, moreover, carried acc. nos. 26.156 and 50.263; 26.270, ill. p. 9) from one such vase, as its out- definite religious allusions: the bearded head with Ridgway, op. cit., 1972, pp. curving surface demonstrates. It bears the figure horns and bovine ears depicts either an elderly 114-15, cat. nos. 47, 48. Dr. Cohon has suggested to me of a young satyr moving to the right as he holds a satyr, thus a follower of Dionysos,7 or the river (see n. 1) that cat. no. 48 is a thyrsos, the magical Bacchic wand. His nonhuman god Acheloos, who had strong roots in Italy, table leg. For an idea of how nature is made obvious by the panther skin tied where it was considered a deity with underworld much marble decoration might appear in a villa context, con­ around his neck and draped over his outstretched associations.8 Moreover, the head itself is rendered sider the peristyle of the Casa left arm, yet the carver has omitted other animal in an artificial manner that recalls the stylizations degli Amorini Dorati (House of the Golden Erotes) in features, such as pointed ears and a tail. He knew of the Archaic period (ca. 650-480 bc), particu­ Pompeii: F. Seiler, Casa degli the type was recognizable not only because of its larly the arrangement of the overly long beard Amorini Dorati VI 16,7.38 attributes and context, but also because of its with spiral curls at its edges and the decorative (Hauser in Pompeji, vol. 5). familiarity to the viewers. In fact, the image recurs mustache that flows into it. The long string of Munich: 1992. in a scene on a krater signed by the master Salpion, inverted flowers that hangs from the beard is 7 In Roman art, some satyrs now in Naples.5 another ornamental detail that adds to the impres­ have horns, perhaps in a con­ flation with the goat-god Pan; sion of artificiality. This echo of an earlier style is Bacchic imagery was not confined to vases. It see, e.g., several bronzes from quite deliberate. The pattern of volutes and buds Pompeii, including the famous appeared in a variety of objects within the peri­ Dancing Satyr that gives the styles (colonnaded courts) of Roman villas. Typical carved on each long side recalls gravestone finials name to the House of the Faun of the sixth century bc. This motif also partakes were the oscilla - marble disks hung between the (Naples, National Museum, of that Archaistic trend so typical of the Augustan 5002): Lexicon Iconographicum columns of porticoes so that they would “oscillate” Mytbologiae Classicae (here­ in the breeze - whose motifs emphasized the period: the deliberate imitation of Archaic Greek after, LIMC), vol. 8, s.v. silenoi, formulas that was meant to impart a sense of Dionysiac realm. Masks of Dionysos or of his spe­ 1131, no. 233, pl. 783, and cf. antiquity and long-standing veneration to the no. 232 for a horned example cial devotees the actors, either in the round or in newly created objects they informed.9 from Pergamon. 8 In Greek art, rivers were The Romans of the Late Republican/Early Imperial often represented with bovine period were quite different from the Greeks traits, since the sound of their they had defeated, but the conquerors absorbed rushing waters when in flood was compared to the bellowing from the conquered a taste for art and luxury that of a bull. For Acheloos, see entirely changed their lifestyle and their environ­ LIMC, vol. 1, s.v. Acheloos, ment for centuries to come. esp. no. 162, pl. 34, for a bronze appliqué of Augustan date somewhat comparable to the head on the risd bench leg. BRUNILDE SISMONDO RIDGWAY Rhys Carpenter Professor Emerita of Classical and 9 The author’s forthcoming book deals with much of this Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College “Neo-Attic” material, espe­ cially chapters 8 and 9: B. S. Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture III: The Styles of ca. 100-31 B.C. Madison: 2002. 10