Sheet with Drawings after Roman relief decorations from objects in the Collection of Cardinal Bruto della Valle. Recto: Friezes from Roman Sarcophagi with Dyonisus; Marble Funerary Relief of Lucius Antistius Sarculo and his wife Antistia Plutia

Sheet with drawings after Roman relief decorations. On the recto, two friezes are depicted. The top frieze is identified as a Roman sarcophagus (early 3rd century AD) from the collection of Andrea della Valle. It shows a Dionysian scene with the Discovery of Ariadne, and has two masks in the shape of lion's heads. According to the inscription on the drawing, it was made while the sarcophagus stood in the courtyard of Cardinal Bruto delle Valle, who inherited the collection after the death of Andrea in 1534. The detailed annotations on this drawing may indicate that it was done during the inventory made by Gabriele Simeoni in 1557, who left discriptions of the collection in French and Italian. In 1584, the entire collection was sold to Cardinal Ferdinand de Medici, and the collection was dispersed. Most objects ended up in the Villa Medici in Rome. This sarcophagus was recently rediscovered at Blenheim Palace where it had been in use as a flower pot in the garden for generations. It was originally acquired by George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840) in the early 19th century. The verso shows a marble funerary relief (originally part of the funerary monument) of Lucius Antistius Sarculo, master of the Alban college of Salian priests, and his wife and freedwoman (former slave) Antistia Plutia. This relief was attached to the wall of a house in Trastevere, about 1510 and was recorded as part of the collection of Bruto della Valle in 1545; thence apparently it passed to the collection of the Palazzo della Valle-Capranica, but if this was the case, it was not included in the sale of the della Valle collection to the Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, in 1584. In 1801, the relief was in the collection of Lord Bessborough at Roehampton. In 1858 the object was acquired by the British Museum, London where it is still part of the collections today.