Sarcophagus Lid with a Man Wearing a Rolled Crown
Unknown · c. 250 BC
The reclining man on this lid wears a thick rolled crown on his head, a cloak draped from the waist, a garland around his neck and a ring, and rests on two cushions on a couch. The lid is one hundred and seventy four centimetres long and was made in two pieces, both moulded, with the face finished by hand. On the back of each section two letters were scratched into the clay, a workshop mark to keep the halves together. The whole figure survives, though the clay is crossed by many cracks.
It comes from Tuscania and dates to around two hundred and fifty before Christ. The workshops there produced these sarcophagi in series, with the same couch and cushions and the same garland and bowl, and gave individuality mainly through the head. Compare this man's rounded, rope like crown with the crowns and diadems on the neighbouring lids. The piece was purchased in eighteen sixty one with the Campana collection, whose Etruscan holdings fill much of this room. The garland was the badge of the banqueter, the role every Etruscan of means expected to play in the afterlife.
Did You Know? Two letters scratched on the back of each half of the lid served as the workshop's assembly instructions.
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