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Section of a sarcophagus: Erotes playing with a Silenos mask
Roman
Imperial Period
Medium/Technique
Stone, marble from the Greek mainland (?)
Dimensions
16 x 26 cm (6 5/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles C. Perkins
Accession Number76.719
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsTomb equipment – Coffins and sarcophagi
Catalogue Raisonné
Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 258.
DescriptionThe bottom molding and part of the interior surface behind are preserved. What remains of the sculptured surfaces is surprisingly fresh and natural.
The broad strip of molding at the bottom indicates that this fragment comes from the lower front, near the center, of a sarcophagus showing Erotes (although the wings are not visible here) engaged in various Dionysiac frolics. The Eros on the left has donned a large mask of a Silenos, the older male followers of the god of wine, and has so frightened another chubby little love god that he has fallen over on his back, against the foot of yet another of his little confréres, who was moving off to the right.
The broad strip of molding at the bottom indicates that this fragment comes from the lower front, near the center, of a sarcophagus showing Erotes (although the wings are not visible here) engaged in various Dionysiac frolics. The Eros on the left has donned a large mask of a Silenos, the older male followers of the god of wine, and has so frightened another chubby little love god that he has fallen over on his back, against the foot of yet another of his little confréres, who was moving off to the right.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: Charles C. Perkins Colletion; 1876: gift of Charles C. Perkins to MFA