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Fragment of a sarcophagus with portrait bust
Roman Provincial
Imperial Period
240-273 A.D.
Place of Manufacture: Syria, Palmyra
Medium/Technique
Limestone
Dimensions
Height: 21.5 cm (8 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Estate of Dana Estes
Accession Number10.73
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 407.
DescriptionThe relief appears to have been broken on all edges save perhaps the bottom. The surfaces are chipped. The oject depicts part of a kline. Oblique grooves indicate the mattress, decorated with a tiny bust. The bust is shown frontally. He has elaborate hair in two rows of corkscrew curls and wears a tunic with a fringed, military (?) cloak over it, the latter pinned with a circular brooch on the right shoulder. A section of the couch (?) frame with a rosette (?) in relief on it appears just beyond his right shoulder. The inscription is carved in a rectangular plate below the bust, and there are traces of a second plate to the right, with an ornament in relief within.
ProvenanceDana Estes (b. 1841 - d. 1909), Brookline, MA; 1910, gift of the estate of Dana Estes to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 28, 1910)