Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART: Sarcophagus of the Spouses

Collection: 
ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title: 
Sarcophagus of the Spouses
Alternate Title: 
Sarcofago degli Sposi
Image View: 
Detail, view from right side, short side of the terracotta couch
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.oxfordartonline.com/)
Collection: 
Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
Identifier: 
7A3-E-VG-SOTS-A11
Rights: 
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.