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Cast of a Roman relief showing three Tyches
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Cast of a Roman relief showing three Tyches
Plaster cast
Museum number: SC65
Curatorial note
The original marble of which this is a cast was, according to Montfaucon, known since the early 17th century. He, and Pietro Santi Bartoli, who engraved it in his Gli Antichi Sepolcri (1768), plate 108, record it as having been found in the ruins of a sepulchral monument on the Via Appia, today known as the Triopeion, a funerary complex erected by Herodes Atticus in the 2nd century in commemoration of Annia Regilla, his wife. The marble then entered the Borghese Collection and when this cast was made was at the Villa Borghese in Rome. Since 1807 it has been in the Louvre Museum, Paris (inventory number Ma 590; dated to 160 AD) where it is titled 'Three Tyches'.
Tyche, the daughter of Oceanus, was the Greek goddess of Fortune. Since the Hellenistic period each city had its own guardian Tyche, and she was represented with a crown shaped like the city walls or ramparts. This relief shows three Goddesses with turreted mural crowns.
Tyche, the daughter of Oceanus, was the Greek goddess of Fortune. Since the Hellenistic period each city had its own guardian Tyche, and she was represented with a crown shaped like the city walls or ramparts. This relief shows three Goddesses with turreted mural crowns.
Provenance
Acquired by Soane from the architect Lewis Wyatt, 1834.
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk