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Roman cinerarium with genii holding reversed torches at the corners
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Roman cinerarium with genii holding reversed torches at the corners
2nd century AD
Pentelic marble
Height: 37cm, maximum
Height (body): 19cm
Width (lid): 32cm
Length (lid): 25cm
Height (body): 19cm
Width (lid): 32cm
Length (lid): 25cm
Inscription: D. M / IVVENTIVS / P̣ṚOFVTVRVS / ONESIDI. / COIVGI. B / M. F
D[is] M[anibus] Iuventius Profuturus Onesidi coiugi b[ene] m[erenti] f[ecit]
Inscription marks: Lines 1-5: the lettercutter’s guidelines are visible.
Lines 1-2: 11mm; Lines 3-6: 10mm.
Inscription note: Solin dates this inscription to the Antonine period.
We are grateful to Dr. Charlotte Tupman, a scholar of epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) undertaking postdoctoral research at King’s College London, who took squeezes of the inscriptions on antiquities in the Museum in 2007, for her transliteration, translation and notes/bibliography of the inscription on this piece.
Inscription transliteration: To the spirits of the departed. Iuventius Profuturus set it up for his well-deserving wife Onesis.
D[is] M[anibus] Iuventius Profuturus Onesidi co
Inscription marks: Lines 1-5: the lettercutter’s guidelines are visible.
Lines 1-2: 11mm; Lines 3-6: 10mm.
Inscription note: Solin dates this inscription to the Antonine period.
We are grateful to Dr. Charlotte Tupman, a scholar of epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) undertaking postdoctoral research at King’s College London, who took squeezes of the inscriptions on antiquities in the Museum in 2007, for her transliteration, translation and notes/bibliography of the inscription on this piece.
Inscription transliteration: To the spirits of the departed. Iuventius Profuturus set it up for his well-deserving wife Onesis.
Museum number: M726
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 340
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
On the front, between fillets, is an enframed name plate flanked by mourning Genii seated on rocks and leaning on reversed torches. On the two sides/ends are griffins, walking towards the front.
Inscribed:
D . M .
IVVENTIVS
PROFVTVRVS
ONESIDI
COJVGI . B
M . F .
The family of which Inventius Profuturus was a libertus was prominent in Roman affairs in the years 70-200 AD.
The motive of the mourning or sleeping funerary Genius probably came to cinerary urns from contemporary sarcophagi (see Soane M1025/Vermeule 178 for derivation from the Hellenistic fountain statue of the Sleeping Eros); Soane's contemporary the great neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, popularised the reversed-torch Genius in his sepulchral monuments in St. Peter's in Rome and elsewhere.
Inscribed:
D . M .
IVVENTIVS
PROFVTVRVS
ONESIDI
COJVGI . B
M . F .
The family of which Inventius Profuturus was a libertus was prominent in Roman affairs in the years 70-200 AD.
The motive of the mourning or sleeping funerary Genius probably came to cinerary urns from contemporary sarcophagi (see Soane M1025/Vermeule 178 for derivation from the Hellenistic fountain statue of the Sleeping Eros); Soane's contemporary the great neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, popularised the reversed-torch Genius in his sepulchral monuments in St. Peter's in Rome and elsewhere.
Provenance
This urn was in the Museum of Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Rome and and previously "in Museo Victorio" (according to the inscription on Piranesi's engraving of it, see references below). Soane purchaed it at the sale of the effects of John McGowan (or McGouan). Catalogue of the Extensive Cabinet of Medals, Coins, Gems, Antiquities, and Books on the Fine Arts. Collected at a Liberal Expence, by John McGouan, Esq. F.R.S. Edin. Deceased . T. Philipe, Warwick Street, Golden Square, London, 8-15 February 1804 [Biblioteque Nationale Paris, available online via Gallicia website, seems to be the auctioneers copy with neatly entered buyers details; another copy is at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham]. The BNP copy records Soane's purchase for £5.5s of "Lot 229 DITTO [Sarcophagus], two angels or genii are sitting with torches reversed, inscript. D.M. IVVENTIVS. PROFITVRVS. ONESIDI. COIVGI, a few letters more, ornamented with foliage all over - heighth [sic] of the front 16 inches, at sides 13¼, width 12½, breadth 10½.". Cornelius Vermeule perviously incorrectly identified this urn as purchased at Lord Mendip's Sale, Christie's, 18 May 1802, Lot. 55, 'A Ditto [cinerary urn] with Boys, Festoons and Inscription'.
We are grateful to Tim Teuten for sharing this provenance informaiton with us 2021.
Literature
G.B. Piranesi, Vasi, Candelabri, Cippi, 1778, Vol. 1, plate 30.
Description of Sir John Soane's Museum [guidebook], 1930, p.68, fig.37.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vi, iii, 20944
H. Solin, Die Griechischen Personennamen im Rom. Ein Namenbuch, 2003, p. 1337.
Description of Sir John Soane's Museum [guidebook], 1930, p.68, fig.37.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vi, iii, 20944
H. Solin, Die Griechischen Personennamen im Rom. Ein Namenbuch, 2003, p. 1337.
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