Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART: Mithras Killing the Bull (relief)
|
Collection:
|
ADJUNCT MODULE A: ITALIAN ART
|
|
Preferred Title:
|
Mithras Killing the Bull (relief)
|
|
Alternate Title:
|
Polychrome Tauroctony (relief)
|
|
Image View:
|
Detail, left side; Chariot of the Sun (Sol), the figure of Mithras with a raven sitting in his cloak (above the horses of the chariot)
|
|
Creator:
|
unknown (Roman (ancient))
|
|
Location:
|
repository: Museo Nazionale Romano (Rome, Lazio, Italy) inv. 205837
|
|
Location Note:
|
Baths of Diocletian, Viale Enrico De Nicola, 79
|
|
GPS:
|
+41.904307+12.498376
|
|
Date:
|
ca. 275-299 CE (creation)
|
|
Cultural Context:
|
Roman (ancient)
|
|
Style Period:
|
Imperial (Roman)
|
|
Work Type 1:
|
relief (sculpture)
|
|
Classification:
|
sculpture
|
|
Material:
|
painted terracotta with gilding
|
|
Technique:
|
carving (processes); modeling (forming); painting and painting techniques
|
|
Measurements:
|
90.5 cm (height) x 148 cm (width)
|
|
Description:
|
Every Mithraeum (an underground temple) represented a cave in which the god Mithras slew the primeval bull and thus brought creation, with its life and light, into existence. The Roman cult was popular from about the 1st to 4th centuries CE. In 1973-1975 a mithraeum was discovered under the church of S. Stephano Rotondo in Rome, in one of the buildings of the Castra Peregrinorum. This large polychrome tauroctony was found in the altar area. The size and preserved colors of the paint and gilding make this an unusual example. The iconography includes the typical chariots of the Sun and Moon, and the scorpion, snake and dog beneath the bull. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/)
|
|
Collection:
|
Adjunct Module A: Italian Art
|
|
Identifier:
|
7A3-R-BD-MKB-A02
|
|
Rights:
|
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
|