Lot 551
ROMAN CARVED MARBLE CINERARY URN
1ST CENTURY A. D., WITH LATER ADDITIONS
Auction: Day Two
Description
with naturalistic twisting branches of oval-shaped leaves and budding fruit between two rows of beading over palmetto leaves, as well as a 18th or 19th century epitaph copied from an inscription found at the Palazzo Corsini, on a later stand
Dimensions
Provenance
Provenance: French private collection, Paris, since late 19th/early 20th century
Acquired in the late 1990s by I. H., Munich
Footnote
Note: Cinerary urns or chests like this one were used in the Roman Imperial period in the first century A. D. for ashes of the deceased, and would then be displayed in niches near the family tomb. Similar naturalistic branch and leaf carvings can be found on several other Roman urns from the period, for example the Royal Collection (Clarence House, RCIN 31660), or the Metropolitan Museum (Acc. No. 2021.19.1), or one from Crowe Hall, Bath, that was sold by Christie's, King Street, 16 Dec 2021.
