Lid from the Sarcophagus of a Woman
Place made:Italy
Culture: Etruscan
Date: 3rd century B.C.
Dimensions:
h. 32 1/2 in. (82.4 cm); w. 85 3/4 in. (218 cm); d. 26 3/4 in. (68.2 cm)
Credit Line: Bequest of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Object number: 2005.1.50
Provenance: sold, Sotheby's London, July 9-10, 1992, lot 369, to Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. (1921-2004), San Antonio; Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., by bequest to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2005
Published References
Sotheby's, London, 9-10 July 1992, 42, lot 269.
J. Powers and J. Johnston, eds., San Antonio Museum of Art: Guide to the Collection (San Antonio: San Antonio Museum of Art, 2012), 43.
Label Text
The deceased woman depicted on this sarcophagus lid reclines on a bed or couch with a gabled footboard and rests her left arm on a pillow. She wears a chiton, belted under her breasts, beneath a himation, or mantle, and has a diadem in her hair. Despite her awkward proportions, her expectant, upward gaze conveys a sense of pathos. The woman’s pose may have been intended to suggest that she is reclining at a banquet, a common theme in Etruscan funerary sculpture and tomb painting. This sarcophagus lid is particularly remarkable because the Etruscans, famed as metalworkers, made relatively little sculpture in stone. It is part of a group of sarcophagi made from a soft, gray volcanic stone, known by the Italian name nenfro, in several cities of southern Etruria in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. The surface of the stone was originally painted, and traces of red and white pigment survive on the woman’s skin, hair, and clothing, and on the footboard. (Jessica Powers 2008)
On view
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
