Sarcophagus Chest with Two Griffins
Unknown · c. 250 BC
This long clay chest, nearly two metres in length, is the lower half of a sarcophagus; the lid with its reclining figure is displayed with it. Across the front, two griffins face each other on either side of a phiale, the shallow bowl with a central boss used for libations. Griffins, part eagle and part lion, were guardians of treasure and of the dead in Greek and Etruscan imagery, and the pair here keep watch over the offering between them. The chest was hand modelled in two parts, and holes were pierced inside and out, probably to help the thick clay dry and fire without cracking. Some of the base is missing.
It was made at Tuscania, in southern Etruria, around two hundred and fifty before Christ, where workshops turned out terracotta sarcophagi in large numbers for the rock cut family tombs of the town. The chest was purchased in eighteen sixty one and carries a Campana number, so it came from the collection of the Marquis Campana in Rome. Compare the crisp, symmetrical griffins with the freer modelling of the man on the lid above, and notice how the bowl he holds echoes the one between the beasts.
Did You Know? The clay was pierced with holes inside and out so that a box nearly two metres long would dry and fire without bursting.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.