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(c) 2019 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Small Sarcophagus
(c) 2019 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
(c) 2019 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Small Sarcophagus

sculptor
Dateabout 125
Place MadeAncient & Byzantine World-Europe
MediumProconessian marble
Dimensions36.8 x 154.9 x 30.5 cm (14 1/2 x 61 x 12 in.)
ClassificationsFunerary Containers
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberS12s2
eMuseum ID718025
EmbARK ObjectID13449
TMS Source ID2380
Last Updated10/31/24
Status
Not on view
Web CommentaryIsabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
BibliographyNotesCorpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 6, no. 29362.
Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma (Rome, 1899), p.287.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 80. (Roman style, 4th or 5th century [CE], perhaps 15th century or even later)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III. "Roman Sarcophagi in America: A Short Inventory" in Philipp von Zabern (ed.). Festschrift für Friedrich Matz (Mainz, 1962), p. 101, no. 5.
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 42, no. 57. (Roman, about 125 CE)
MarksNotesInscription (on the central tablet): D[is] M[anubus] / VIPIA E*M*F* / HYGIAE* / PARENTES*FILIAE* / PIISSIMAE*FERCERVNI* ("To the Gods and Shades / To Ulpia Hygia the daughter of Marcus / The parents made this / for a most devoted daughter")
ProvenanceNotesTranscribed and described by Aldus Manutius, the Younger (1547-1597) in the Vatican gardens. Described by the same author soon after, in the Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican.
Eventually, in the vineyard called Jacobini detta dell' Orologio near the via Portuense, Rome.
By 1899 it was sold to an antiquities dealer, perhaps A. Scale, Rome.
Purchased by Dr. Henry C. Sartorio from the dealer A. Scale, Rome in January 1922.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the dealer Dr. Henry C. Sartorio, Rome for 5,000 lire on 25 May 1923, through Mrs. Henry L. Higginson (Ida Agassiz, 1837-1935).