✨Exceptional Elephants✨
These two gorgeous elephants are thought to have once faced each other in an architectural setting, but the provenance is mostly unknown. The marble is apparently Italian and the panels are thought to date to the late first century CE. Despite the uncertainty, these two make a delightful pair!
✨Pan riding an ithyphallic mule✨
The Greek god Pan was connected with flocks and shepherds so it perhaps only fitting that he is depicted here upon a mule, who is faithfully rendered complete with phallus.
This piece is thought to a Roman relief modelled upon an earlier Hellenistic era relief and it is now held in the MAN Napoli, inv. 27712.
#ReliefWednesday #PhallusThursday #AncientRome #AncientGreece #Priapus
Four goddesses from Roman London. Dating to the 3rd century AD, the sculpture was re-used as building material in the riverside wall at Blackfriars. Now part of the collections at London Museum. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain
✨The dance of the maenads✨
This is one of four reliefs depicting maenads dancing held by the Museo del Prado. The exceptional detail and sense of flowing movement is simply exquisite. These are Roman reinterpretations of Greek reliefs from the fifth century BCE and were designed to honour the maenads’ chosen god, Dionysus. The original reliefs were purported to be crafted by the sculptor Callimachus (ca. 410-400 BCE).
#ReliefWednesday #AncientGreece #AncientRome #History #Dionysos
Relief showing Mithras killing the bull from the Mithraeum at Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Now part of the collections at the Great Museum of the North in Newcastle. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain
Relief with a teaching scene from sacred area of the Via della Foce in Ostia Antica, near Rome. Dating to the late 4th century AD, the relief is on display in the site museum. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #Ostia #Roman #Archaeology
✨Augustus and Agrippa✨
In 27 BCE, Augustus settled veterans from the Egyptian campaign in the Gallic city Nemausus and gave it the rights of a colonia. The Egyptian connection lead to the coins of Gallic Nemausus showing Egyptian symbols such as the crocodile, palm tree, or palm frond.
#ReliefWednesday #AncientRome #AncientCoins #Augustus #Agrippa
A carved relief of the Roman moon goddess Luna. The carving decorated the pediment of a building in the temple precinct at the Roman Baths in Bath. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain #Bath
The ‘Netherby Genius’ - a relief of a guardian spirit which was found at Netherby, the site of Castra Exploratorum Roman Fort, in Cumbria. The relief is now part of the collections at Tullie House Museum in Carlisle. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain #TullieHouseMuseum
💕Venus and Mars⚔️
This terracotta antefix depicts Venus, the goddess of love, and Mars, the god of war, together. The striking detail of this relief is the paint residue that remains suggesting a beautiful visual harmony to the piece. Even the covers for roof tiles could be decorated in ancient Rome!
✨ The Tomb of the Haterii ✨
This tomb relief is a special one for the insights it offers about building practices. The crane to the left seems to be the manned by many people (likely enslaved). The Haterii are known as a family involved in construction particularly under the Flavians. The building is a funerary monument shaped as a temple. This piece is held by the Musei Vaticani. Image credit to Dan Diffendale via Flickr.
The ‘Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus’ depicting battle scenes between Romans and Barbarians. The sarcophagus dates to the 3rd century AD, and is part of the collections at the Palazzo Altemps in Rome. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #Rome
✨Augustus and Victory✨
Augustus strikes an heroic nude pose while he and a winged Victory attend to a military trophy. The trophy consists of enemy armour attached to a post. Augustus is further distinguished by being attended by an eagle, a classic symbol of Jupiter and Roman military might. Beneath the military trophy is a bound figure who represents those conquered.
✨The Two Princes✨
Gaius and Lucius or Britannicus and Nero? The identity of these two young men depicted in heroic nude at Aphrodisias is up for debate, but that we’re looking at imperial youths is clear. The figure on the left holds the orb of the world and a ship’s stern ornament indicative of his place at least as an imperial heir.
Small relief depicting three spirits wearing hooded cloaks (genii cucullati) from a building that formed part of the vicus at Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland. On display in the site museum. 📸 My own. #ReliefWednesday #RomanBritain #Housesteads
This #ReliefWednesday we celebrate Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads and transitions.
This is a votive relief to Hecate and the inscription warns against defacement of the place where the relief was located. Presumably the relief was originally located in a sanctuary to the goddess.
✨The Eleusinian Mysteries✨
Demeter and Persephone flank a young youth thought to be Triptolemos. This beautiful Augustan era rendition based on a Greek relief is our pick for #ReliefWednesday and #ClassicsTober25.
#ReliefWednesday!
A Roman marble relief of a warship. Found in the necropolis of Praeneste (Latium), late 1st century BC.
The relief presumably belonged to the tomb of a Roman veteran who had served on Octavian’s side at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
📷 me
The photo was taken at the Caesar and Cleopatra exhibition in Speyer, having been loaned by the Vatican Museum.
