The back and cover of this sarcophagus are unfinished, and its inscription tablet is blank, which may imply that it went unsold in antiquity. Garlands of oak leaves supported by two erotes and four Victories adorn the front and sides. Medusa heads fill the spaces above the garlands, except in the center of the front, where there is the blank inscription tablet. Six erotes hunt various wild animals along the front face of the cover, while two others stand at the corners. On the left end, Eros awakens Psyche with an arrow, and on the right, they embrace.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Marble sarcophagus with garlands
Period:Severan
Date:ca. 200–225 CE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Marble, Proconnesian
Dimensions:Overall: 53 x 88in. (134.6 x 223.5cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Gift of Abdo Debbas, 1870
Accession Number:70.1
Found at Tarsus, Cilicia, near the bridge over the Cydnus River in 1863 (Davis 1879, p. 31).
Until 1870, collection of J. Abdo Debbas, American vice consul, Tarsus, Cilicia (modern-day southern Turkey); acquired in 1870, gift of J. Abdo Debbas.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1871. Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1: p. 10.
Davis, Edwin John. 1879. Life in Asiatic Turkey. A journal of travel in Cilicia (Pedias and Trachoea), Isauria, and parts of Lycaonia and Cappadocia. p. 31, London, E. Stanford.
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1903. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 3. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 258, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen. 1924. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections. p. 135, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Rodenwaldt, Gerhart. 1927. Die Kunst der antike Hellas und Rom. p. 699, pl. 6, Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag.
Rodenwaldt, Gerhart. 1933. "Sarcophagi from Xanthos." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 53(2): no. 57, p. 204 n. 73.
Rodenwaldt, Gerhart. 1938. "Sarkophag-Miscellen." Archäologischer Anzeiger, 53: column 398, n. 3, column 413, n. 1.
Ward-Perkins, John B. 1958. "Four Roman Garland Sarcophagi in America." Archaeology, 11(2): pp. 102–3.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1966. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 7. p. 628, fig. 747, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
McNally, Sheila. 1971. "The Frieze of the Mausoleum at Split." Studies Presented to George M.A. Hanfman, David Gordon Mitten, John D. Pedley, and Jane Ayer Scott, eds. p. 110, n 38, Cambridge, Mass.: Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums.
McCann, Anna Marguerite. 1978. Roman Sarcophagi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 2, pp. 21, 29–33, figs. 23–24, 26, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 468, pp. 3, 398, 497, figs. 1a, b, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 142, pp. 23, 288–89, 389, fig. 167, New York: Scala Publishers.
On November 21, 1870, The Metropolitan Museum of Art accessioned its first work of art—a Roman marble sarcophagus found in 1863 at Tarsus in Cilicia (modern southern Turkey).
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
