Marble pediment of a funerary altar

Unknown

ca. 120–130 CE · Marble · Greek and Roman Art

This fragment of an altar is from a commemorative monument in which identifying inscriptions would have appeared on the shaft below the three portrait busts. Since that part of the altar is now missing, the relationship between the figures is not known. The woman at the center, whose hairstyle suggests a date in the early second century A.D., is the main focus of attention and so is thought to be the mother of the two men, who look respectfully toward her. It may be that they died first, and their grieving mother, who is presented in a more lifelike pose, was left to set up this monument.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 120–130 CE

Medium

Marble

Culture

Roman

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1914