- Museum number
- 1805,0703.167
- Description
-
Marble cinerary chest of Cossutia Prima.
- Production date
- 2ndC(early)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 55.88 centimetres
-
Width: 39.37 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Cook 2013, nr. 279:
‘A sepulchral urn, two feet high; in the upper part is a dove, placed on the Lotus, the branches of which inclose a panther and a deer. at the edges are two pilasters; the capitals are composed of the head of a genius betwixt two pigeons placed on the leaves of the Lotus, and a vine branch springing from a vase runs up the whole length of the pilaster. At the bottom is a quadriga, drove by a Genius with wings. This monument was found in the Villa Maroni near Rome 1788. In the centre of the front is the following inscription
D • M •
COSSVTIAE
PRIMAE
MATRI
PIENTISSIME (sic)
BENEMERENTI
FECIT’
(1804 Parlour Catalogue, dining room 13).
Townley’s date for the discovery (given also in TY 12/22/61/1 and TY 12/6) may refer rather to the purchase, since the object was already on offer by 20 February (TY 7/467). The statement in TY 12/6, that the urn came from the Burioni collection, seems not to be repeated elsewhere, and may well be an error.
On 27 September 1786, Jenkins informed Townley that his available stock included ‘some most interesting pedestals’ (TY 7/445), and on 10 November 1787, he remarked that he had some available at £10 to £12 or £15 (TY 7/460). Townley seems to have made a selection, for on 20 February 1788, Jenkins sent a list of four that together with the relief of the Muses (1805,0703.120) were already packed (TY 7/467). At this period, Jenkins had a catalogue of available items, and these four were not described in detail, but were listed by their numbers in the catalogue and distinguished by their heights: no. 26, 2 feet 9 inches; no. 27, 2 feet 1 ½ inches; no. 41, 3 feet 4 inches; and no. 47, 2 feet 4½ inches. After the original four had been shipped to Leghorn, Townley expressed a wish for this item (1805,0703.167), and Jenkins took advantage of a delay in shipping to have one of the cases opened in order to effect a substitution. The ‘pedestals’, like the relief of the Muses, arrived in London too late to be included in the ‘L’ Catalogue (TY 12/3) as initially compiled, but the first three (1805,0703.180, 1805,0703.182 and one now at Brocklesby Park) appear on three leaves tipped into that catalogue between numbers 27 and 28 of the hall. In a bill from Jenkins enclosed in his letter of 13 December 1788 (TY 7/477), ‘four Pedestals and a Bass relief’ purchased in January are collectively charged at £50. The bill was settled on 27 March 1789 (Wigan Accounts).
Date:
early II AD (Boschung).
Drawings:
* Townley drawings 2010,5006.1868 to 1870, attributed to Dolcibene (I. D. Jenkins). A payment to Dolcibene for six drawings appears on the same bill from Jenkins.
Bibliography:
- Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (1808), V.17;
- Ancient Marbles of the British Museum, V, pl. 5, figs. 1-3;
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. III (London 1904), 351, no. 2364;
- W. Altmann, Die römischen Grabaltäre der Kaiserzeit (Berlin, 1905),164-5, no. 208;
- E. Strong, Apotheosis and Afterlife (London, 1915), 283, pl. xxviii.2;
- E. von Mercklin, Antike Figuralkapitelle (Berlin, 1962), 235, no. 571, figs. 1100-2;
- A. Ambrogi, in A. Giuliani (ed.), Museo Nazionale Romano, Le Sculture I/8/1, 80 (discussion of capitals);
- D. Boschung, Antike Grabaltäre aus den Nekropolen Roms. Acta Bernensia X (Bern, 1987), 31, 109, no. 865 (bibl.);
- CIL VI, 16539.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.167
