Living Poets

Image: Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. no. 6736

Object Description: A marble relief shows an elderly man wearing a himation (mantle). He has a long beard, rustic staff, and sits next to a capsis (scroll-case), on which rests a bundle of scrolls. Behind the figure is a curtain, and at his feet is a sheep. The relief has been dated stylistically to the late second century CE and was once part of a sarcophagus.

Object Archaeology: Unknown. Once part of the Farnese Collection.

Inscriptions: None.

Dimensions: height 60 cm, width 47cm.

Examples in major collections:

• Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. no. 6736. Sarcophagus relief.
• Rome, Musei Capitolini inv. 523, Stanza dei Filosofi no. 14. Heavily restored head that closely resembles that of Naples sarcophagus.
• Memphis, Egypt, figure no. 4 (of 11) in the exhedra of the Sarapieion dromos. A highly fragmentary figure that resembles the Naples relief.

Bibliography

• Lauer, J. P. and Picard, C. 1955. Les Statues Ptolémaïques du Sarapieion de Memphis. Paris: 96-108.
• Richter, G. M. A. 1965. The Portraits of the Greeks. London: 57.
• Schefold, K. 1997. Die Bildnisse der antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker. Basel: 262-263.