SARCOPHAGUS FRONT, C. 250 CE. PALAZZO MATTEI DI GIOVE
This small sarcophagus front is set into the wall above a doorway in the androne or entrance passage of the early C17 palazzo Mattei. Of the five heads of the larger figures here, only two are original. The relief consists of a central group of three figures, Hylas and the two nymphs who are youth-napping him, flanked by two other groups of three figures. Hylas was the lover of Hercules, who is probably the adult male figure at left carrying a large tub. Two Erotes are leading him to the site of Hylas' disappearance. At far right another Argonaut, probably Polyphemus (not the Cyclops) is also being brought to the site by Erotes. Hylas, nude but for a cloak, is holding a jug, but is being grabbed by two nymphs who will drag him underwater and know him biblically. The nymph at left has the face of an old woman, which seems to have come from another sarcophagus, but the nymph at right has an original head, which is of a boy. If Hylas' face is carved to look like the adult version of the occupant of this child's sarcophagus, or possibly to look like the dead boy's father, the nymph has the boy's actual face. This may be because the boy had not yet reached the age of donning the toga virilis and thus his sexual identity was not socially confirmed, or perhaps it was the only way to fit father and son into a scene on a pre-carved sarcophagus.
#SarcophagusSaturday takes us to #palazzoMattei di #Giove in #Rome, where an unusual #relief shows the rape of #Hylas, an episode from the myth of the #Argonauts, from c. 250 CE. There's something odd about the nymphs: one has the face of a little boy, another of an old woman. #AncientBluesky 🏺+ALT!
