Explore Collections Explore The Collections
You are here: CollectionsOnline  /  Fragment of a Roman cresting plaque depicting captive women in a mulecart in a triumphal procession
  • image M807

Fragment of a Roman cresting plaque depicting captive women in a mulecart in a triumphal procession

Early Augustan

Terracotta

Height: 15cm
Width: 8cm

Museum number: M807

Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 478help-vermeule-catalogue-number

On display: Dome Area
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house. For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit

Curatorial note

A youth in girt tunic and mantle stands facing, right hand in the fold of his garment; the left held a stick (?). A corner of the cart appears at the right; all beyond at the right, at the left beyond his right elbow, and below the middle of the thighs is missing.

Group IV: Cresting Plaques.

This figure is one of a number similar which survive as fragments of an early Augustan architectural relief panel, of which the best example is preserved in the Antiquarium in Berlin1. The scene represented was that of two female Germanic captives in a biga pulled by mules led by two men in triumphal procession, and is one of the earliest reflections of the Roman triumphal vocabulary in the smaller arts2. The figure represented by this Soane fragment walked at the right of the cart and was probably chastising the unfortunate women with the stick in his left hand.

1 H. Von Rohden and H. Winnefeld, Die antiken Terracotten, vol. IV. 1,2, (Architektomische römische Tonreliefs der Kaiserzeit), p. 276, pl. LXXIII.
2 On the relationships between designs such as this and Roman triumphal art, both monumental reliefs and gems or coins, see American Journal of Archaeology 61, 1957, pp. 244-247, in connection with the enrichment of imperial cuirassed statues.

Provenance help-art-provenance

Unrecorded

Literature

Von Rohden, H., and Winnefeld, H., Die antiken Terracotten, vol. IV. 1,2, (Architektomische römische Tonreliefs der Kaiserzeit.) Text, p. 133.


Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk