- Museum number
- 1886,0326.5
- Description
-
Fragment of Clazomenian painted terracotta sarcophagus. Satyr. Below, dividing band of dots, chequers, and presumably another band of dots. Inner details in white, much of which has perished. No certain traces of purple.
- Production date
- 525BC-500BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 55.88 centimetres
-
Length: 29.21 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- CVA British Museum 8 (Comment relates to whole sarcophagus, with 1886.3-26.5)
The shape is that of the ordinary sarcophagus. The rounding of the top of the headpiece is modern: according to Dennis the fragment had been reused for building (AD i, 34).
For the boy and dogs compare closely Istanbul 1352, which is by the same hand (Johansen, Acta Arch xiii, 41-47, fig. 27). The Istanbul sarcophagus has also the framing band, rosettes - though of different antecedents - in the upper corner strip, and the chequering below the upper panel; but these appear on other early sarcophagi. Satyrs painted in white are frequent blazons of shields in the Albertinum group; those always have human feet, perhaps in deference to Attic. But this hooved satyr looks back to his older relations on Clazomenian black figure pots (see BSA xlvii, 142 n. 87). So, much more obviously, do the large cockerels (cf., for example, Pl. 587, 16-17).
The headpiece is decorative both in arrangement and intention. The central figure, as Johansen has explained admirably, is excerpted from the Attic group, familiar in the mid and later sixth century, of the man who woos his boy friend with the gift of a cockerel (From the Collections iii, 134-40; and on these scenes generally see J. D. Beazley, Some Attic Vases in the Cyprus Museum, 18-24). The doubling of the cockerels, though authorized by Attic, is necessary here for decorative symmetry; and the dogs and flanking poultry are more or less appropriate filling. A similar grouping of a boy holding a small cockerel and a large cockerel beside him can be made out on an earlier Clazomenian black figure potsherd (Pl. GB 588, 5). There is, of course, no need or excuse for a chthonic interpretation of this headpiece, nor yet of the satyr of the upper panel.
This is evidently an early sarcophagus. Its not very competent painter, whether he drew directly on Attic or not, was partly dependent on the Borelli painter. Johansen proposes a date in the 530's (Acta Arch xiii, 45-47); but some of his parallels are dated perhaps a little too early and he makes no allowance for lag.
G. Dennis, JHS 1883-iv, 20, fig. 15 (inaccurate drawing of satyr). C. Smith, JHS 1885, 190-1, fig. 4 (fair drawing of satyr). AD i, pl. 46. 3. A. Joubin, de Sarcophagis Clazomeniis, no. 3. K. F. Johansen, From the Collections iii, 134-41, fig. 6; Acta Arch xiii, 41-47, fig. 28. A. W. Byvanck, l’Antiquité Classique 1948, 98-D.1.
(For interpretations and criticisms of these interpretations see also: G. Loeschke, aus der Unterwelt; A. Furtwangler, AA 1889, 147; F. Deneken, in W. H. Roscher's Ausführliches Lexikon der gr. und rom. Mythologie i. 2, 2586; O. Immisch, ibid. ii. 1, 1127-9; E. Rohde, Psyche8 i, 306; F. Winter, AA 1898, 177; C. C. Edgar, BSA v, 61; P. Perdrizet, Revue des Études Anciennes 1904, 14-16; L. Malten, Jdl 1914, 236 n. 8; E. Pfuhl, Malerei und Zeichnung i, 169; C. T. Seltman, BSA xxvi, 93 and 100-1.)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1886
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1886,0326.5
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 1886.3-26.6 (part, restored with)