Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART: Tragic Theater Scene from a Tomb Niche

Collection: 
ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART
Preferred Title: 
Tragic Theater Scene from a Tomb Niche
Image View: 
Detail, the young child Astyanax is led by the hand
Creator: 
unknown (Roman (ancient) sculptor)
Location: 
repository: Museo Nazionale Romano (Rome, Lazio, Italy)
Location Note: 
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme; largo di Villa Peretti, 1
GPS: 
+41.901363+12.498270
Date: 
late 1st century BCE (creation)
Cultural Context: 
Roman (ancient)
Style Period: 
Early Imperial
Work Type 1: 
relief (sculpture)
Work Type 2: 
aedicule
Classification: 
Sculpture and Installations
Material: 
polychrome (painted) terracotta
Technique: 
modeling (forming)
Subjects: 
death or burial; funerary art; literary or legendary; mythology (Classical); Homer. Iliad
Description: 
Painted terracotta slab for the base of an aedicule from the tomb of P. Numitorius Hilarus, found on the Via Salaria. Dated end of the 1st century BCE. It depicts a scene from from the lost play "Astyanax", by the Roman writer Lucius Accius (170- ca. 86 BCE). He was inspired by the Trojan cycle, narrating the death of Astyanax, son of the Trojan prince Hector and Andromache. The young child was thrown from the walls of Troy by Neoptolemus as his mother Andromache looked on. The scene unfolds in front of the fixed scenery typical of the large Roman theaters built in stone in the late republican and imperial periods. A splendid architectural facade decorated with columns, pediments and statues has the three traditional doors: the central door (porta regia) and the two side doors (hospitalia). (Source: Museo Nazionale Romano; http://archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/node/482)
Collection: 
Archivision Adjunct Module C: World Art
Identifier: 
7A3-R-PM-TST-A02
Rights: 
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.