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Sarcophagus with Allegory of the Four Seasons

Sarcophagus with Allegory of the Four Seasons

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Unknown

This Roman sarcophagus is of the portrait medallion type, with an image of the deceased depicted in a central, circular frame. Two cherubs, winged-infant figures, hold up the medallion and gaze at two other cherubs on either end of the sarcophagus. The four cherubs, with baskets of fruit at their feet, and represent the four seasons, a common motif for sarcophagus decoration, as seasonal changes were associated with death and resurrection. Below the medallion, two roosters fight each other as two smaller cherubs look on. The cockfight motif, representing the struggle to live a moral life, also appears regularly on funerary monuments.
Artist
Unknown (Roman)
Title
Sarcophagus with Allegory of the Four Seasons
Date
ca. 280
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
24 3/4 x 72 x 25 3/4 in. Overall
Credit
Max W. Zabel Fund purchase
Accession No.
69.13.1
Classification
Sculpture
Geography
Roman Empire

Related

<span>ca. 1954, acquired by Crowther of Syon Lodge Ltd. Antiques Decorations; after ca. 1959, sold by Crowther of Syon Lodge Ltd. to an unknown collector or dealer; 1 July 1969, sold at Sotheby &amp; Co. (London, England) auction "Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Irish Bronze Age, Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Anglo-Saxon Antiquities" [lot 121] to the Elvehjem Art Center [now called Chazen Museum of Art]. [Last researched by Chazen staff January 2023]</span>

  • Vermeule, Cornelius C. "Greek and Roman Sculpture in America." Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1981. p. 259, no. 217
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Handbook of the Collection." Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, 1990. no. 10
  • Jungman, Camille S. "A "Seasons" Sarcophagus in the Elvehjem Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin." The Classical Journal Vol. 76, No. 1, Oct.-Nov. The Classical Association of the Middle West and South (1980): 21-33.

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