Summary

Sarcophagus fragment showing a boar hunt, Ancient Rome, second half of the third century AD. A fine classical sculpture of white marble. A fragment of a sarcophagus, a relief panel or frieze depicting a lively hunting scene. This is a large fragment depicting two men with slashing swords, spears and a shield, pursuing a boar. Part of a Latin inscription visible on the border reading DEPOSITA XVII Y.

Full description

Sarcophagus fragment showing a boar hunt, Ancient Rome, second half of the third century AD. A fine classical sculpture of white marble. A fragment of a sarcophagus, a relief panel or frieze depicting a lively hunting scene. This is a large fragment depicting two men with slashing swords, spears and a shield, pursuing a boar. Part of a Latin inscription visible on the border reading DEPOSITA XVII Y. The fragment is broken the left, right, and bottom. The front surface is well-preserved. The front is well carved in relief; the back is roughly picked. The running drill has been used effectively to create short deep shadows in the hair of the two men and in the fur of the boar. Drill points also delineate the pupils and inner corners of the eyes, and the mouths have been drilled open. Fine flat chisel work has been used to define the iris of the boar’s eye, the eyelids of the men, and the facial hair of the men. This well-carved fragment shows two hunters and a boar in relief and was originally part of a large and fine metropolitan Roman sarcophagus of the third century AD. At Biddulph Grange it was located on the viewer’s left below the male head. In the wall its value lay in its representation of the boar and the natural human activity to hunt the boar. In the second and third centuries AD, numerous large marble sarcophagi were made and decorated variously with scenes from myth or from everyday life. A popular theme for these items (and for funerary items throughout classical antiquity) was the hunt. Hunt scenes, plausibly real life events, showed the valour of men, and the sadness of the death of a noble, ferocious, and beautiful animal. The Roman sarcophagi of this period show men hunting lions, stags, boars, and even on occasion bears. Beautiful and useful objects with poignant narratives, these sarcophagi were recycled and reused by different individuals for centuries after their original manufacture and were often notably devoid of religious connotations; they were used by both pagans and Christians. The Biddulph Grange fragment shows two men both moving to the viewer’s right and bearing down on a boar who moves the other way. The man at the outer (viewer’s left) side of the composition has curly hair, light facial hair, and a large spear. The man next to him has combed back hair, light facial hair, a knife in his right hand, and a round shield on his left arm. Both men wear cloaks pinned with round brooches at their right shoulders. Their mouths are open and eyes focused in concentration. On the far (viewer’s) right of the composition is the billowing cloak of another figure. That figure was central to the original composition, probably riding a horse, and probably bearing down on a lion. The composition is standard in Roman sarcophagi. The carving is however careful and highly effective. The upper border is inscribed DEPOSITA XVII (put to rest on 17?th). The feminine of the adjective deposited indicates that this inscription refers to a woman. Its placement and gender might indicate a second use. The carving finds an astonishingly close parallel in a sarcophagus excavated in 1958 at the Catacombs of the Cimitero Maggiore in Rome; the composition also is clearly related. The original inscription of the Cimitero Maggiore sarcophagus was erased; yet its second inscription dates to ca. 290; and its third inscription dates to AD 364. Thus, the sarcophagus was made and first used before AD 290; it was then re-used on two further occasions. The motif of two standing men fighting a boar appears on the viewer’s right side of the Cimitero Maggiore sarcophagus. In that sarcophagus notably one of the men holds a shield (an unusual detail since hunters, unlike soldiers, did not need shields). In addition, one man holds a spear and the other a sword. Beyond these three distinctive similar choices in compositional details, the technical similarity in workmanship is startling. The rending of the eyes and facial hair and mouths of the men as well as the eye of the boar are identical. The two sarcophagi must have been produced in the same workshop at the same time. One of six sculptural fragments (104579-104584) carefully set into the wall on the left of the entrance to the Geological Gallery of Biddulph Grange which opened in 1862. The foyer area, the left wall of which they decorated, preceded the gallery. In the gallery, the seven days of Creation were demonstrated one by one, on the wall to the visitor’s left, by means of geological evidence, rocks and fossils. In both the entrance and in the gallery, the objects were set into the wall with deliberate illustrative purpose. In both the entrance and the gallery, the objects are stone and somehow marked, and through their ancient markings demonstrate the truth of the creation story. In the entrance wall, five of the objects were carved in the Greco-Roman period; the other object was carved later but the creators of the gallery may not have known that. The objects set into the gallery wall illustrate a geological approach that was intended to confirm scientifically the Christian understanding of creation. The objects set into the entrance were a stone and sculptural re-enactment of the traditional approach to the Christian creation scene which the gallery would confirm scientifically. In the Biddulph Grange wall, a bearded paternal figure (104580) peers out and over a scene below; the actual object, a head of Goliath with Renaissance origins, stands for God the Father. Below him, to the left and right, are male and female heads (104581 & 104582). The male head is bearded with a lined and tried face, in fact the head probably of Herakles from the Roman period. Herakles, the mortal son of Zeus, who had to struggle through 12 labours to redeem himself and get entry to heaven, is a brilliant choice for Adam. One is left to wonder whether this choice was coincidence or whether the creators of the gallery were extremely well-versed. The pendant to this male head, Adam, is female head is modestly veiled with symmetrical ageless features; she is intended at Biddulph Grange to be Eve. In reality, she is the head of the ideal woman from a classical Greek tombstone. Again the choice of an image that was made as a representation of the most appropriate qualities of a demure and modest wife for an image of Eve is exceptionally well-conceived. Both of these choices would seem to confirm the longevity of the Christian story; that is, even in societies where the story was not espoused, the fundamental concepts behind it existed. Below these two human heads, on the left and right, are fragments from Roman sarcophagi which show animals and their natural plight in life. On the left (104583), a wild boar is hunted by men and on the right (104584), a noble horse is taken down by a ravenous lion. These are the marvellous creatures which God created and which are in a natural state of conflict with other beings. These images were displayed on Roman sarcophagi precisely because they represented the simplicity of nature, both its natural beauty and cruelty. At the bottom of the scene, in antithesis to God the Father, is a dark piece of porphyry, carved to represent the mouth and beard of a man (104579). Its interpretation is less clear. It may stand for the solid basis that God created for his creatures. It is a magnificent stone which in its fragmentary state is virtually devoid of animation. The space of the wall furthermore may have been punctuated by a lamp at the centre of these sculptural fragments. A decorative stone bracket projects from the centre and must have carried some object. A lamp or torch placed on the bracket would have given illuminated the dark passage and represented the light of God. All of the sculptures are carefully chosen fragments; they each have a specific aesthetic and compositional value. They would seem to have been purchased for this purpose and may even have been broken (with the exception of 104579 into their current shape for this purpose. The composer has selected with attention and each of the fragments (with perhaps the exception of 104580 is attractive and well-carved. Symbolically the reuse of objects from “ancient” cultures suggests the antiquity and venerable veracity of the Creation scene. (Exert from J. Lenaghan 2017 "Biddulph Grange. Report in Wall left of entrance to gallery")