The Portonaccio Sarcophagus in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome is one of the greatest of all ancient artworks. Yet it presents us with a certain number of riddles; we will not try to solve those here. For the moment we might simply enjoy looking at the sarcophagus before we even think about contemplating its enigmas, or shedding light on them. There is no point in studying something you do not love – unless it helps you understand something that you do, of course.
Victories against Barbarians
The Portonaccio Sarcophagus is named after the district in Rome where it was discovered in 1931. It is one of two dozen or so extant ‘battle sarcophagi’ that were produced in the Roman Empire, mainly between AD 170 and 210, and feature scenes of Roman victory over barbarians. The latest of these battle sarcophagi, the so-called Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus, appears to have been produced in the 250s, during the Crisis of the 3rd Century. Its technical qualities are all the more impressive when you consider how far Roman art was in decline at this point in history.
Battle sarcophagi ultimately derive their imagery from Hellenistic precedents – for example, monumental sculptures in Pergamon commemorating victories against the Gauls – but we shouldn’t presume that artisans of the 2nd century AD had direct access to such memorials. Their main influences were inevitably local. The Roman workshops where some of the very finest battle sarcophagi were created seem to have drawn inspiration from Trajan’s Column, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, and the now-vanished Arch of Marcus Aurelius.
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