Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Sarcophagus of the Spouses
Alternate Title:
Sarcofago degli Sposi
Image View:
Detail from the back of the couple on a banqueting couch, both have long braided hair, the man has his arm around his wife's shoulder
Creator:
unknown (Etruscan sculptor)
Location:
repository: Museo Nazionale Etrusco (Villa Giulia) (Rome, Lazio, Italy)
Location Note:
Piazzale di Villa Giulia, 9
GPS:
41.918375 12.477657
Date:
ca. 525-500 BCE (creation)
Cultural Context:
Etruscan
Style Period:
Greco-Etruscan
Work Type 1:
sculpture (visual work)
Work Type 2:
cremation urn
Classification:
Sculpture and Installations
Material:
terracotta
Technique:
modeling (forming)
Measurements:
1.14 m (height) x 1.9 m (length)
Subjects:
death or burial; funerary art; human figure
Description:
In the second half of the 6th century BC the Ionian style of the Greek cities of Asia Minor captivated the Mediterranean world, and Cerveteri produced some of the finest examples of the new style. Caeretan ash urns now took the form of couches, sometimes the funeral couch, more often the banquet couch, on which figures of the dead reclined, smiling. Here, life-size figures of a man and woman recline together, the man’s right arm around the woman’s shoulders, both smiling and gesticulating animatedly. They have egg-shaped heads, long, oval faces with arched eyebrows and slanting eyes, short noses with rounded nostrils, and the 'Archaic smile'. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordart online.com/)
Collection:
Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
Identifier:
7A3-E-VG-SOTS-A22
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Sarcophagus of the Spouses