Roman Sculpture: Marble Grave Stele

Inv. No.: 78.004
Provenance: Roman (possibly Rome)
Date: 50-150 AD
Height: 451mm
Width: 276mm
Depth: 35 mm
 
A small upright rectangular headstone with a rounded top, decorated with a relief carving of the goddess Diana as a huntress accompanied by a hound. The relief scene is framed by a flat border, c.20 mm wide, and set into the surface of the marble slab. Beneath the figures is an inscription, carefully spaced and carved in capital letters and framed by double incised lines on the sides and base, as follows:

D

VITALINI

FILIAESVAE

QVAVIII.M.XI.D.III

FECERVNT

PARENTESPIENTISSIMI

Translated, this reads: "To the gods of the shades, her loving parents erect this memorial to their daughter, Vitalinis, who lived for eight years, eleven months and three days." "D M" is the usual abbreviation for "Dis Manibus" ["To the gods of the shades"]. The fine-grained marble is white with grey veins and some rust-coloured speckles on the surface. The stele is in good condition with one fault or deep scratch on the front surface across the upper right corner of the lettering and another running down the right-hand side of Diana face and along her left arm. There is slight damage to her nose and to the top of the dog head. The outside edges of the stele are chipped, especially on the right.

Function:
A memorial marker for the grave of a young girl at a time in Roman history when children were greatly valued, especially in the families of freed men and women. The chaste and beautiful goddess Diana was frequently chosen for funerary reliefs commemorating unmarried young girls.

Manufacture:
Point or punch and hammer were used for initial shaping of the slab, followed by carving with claw or flat chisels and smoothing with a rasp or abrasives. The background of the figures has been excavated below the surface of the slab so that the figures stand out in relief. The text has been symmetrically laid out and incised with a hammer (malleus) and a chisel (scalprum) held at an oblique angle, producing a V-shaped groove.

Decoration:
The rather squat figure of Diana has a frontal body and a head in three-quarter view. Her gaze is directed to her left, in the direction of the prey she is about to shoot using the bow that she holds in her left hand. Her right hand is reaching behind her head in order to take an arrow from the quiver she carries on her back. Her legs are spread apart in order to steady her body for the shot and her hound, depicted in profile, leaps to the right in the direction of the presumed target. On her feet are soft boots reaching just above her ankles. She also wears a chitoniskos with a short mantle or chlamys. Straps holding the quiver on her back cross at the front, between her breasts. Her hair is tied back into a knot. Her features are coarse and over-large for the size of her body. The face is perhaps a portrait of the dead Vitalinis since portraits were often added to stock figures. However, indications of breast development make the body seem too mature for an eight year old.

Bibliography:
Hopkins, K., Death and Renewal, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983, especially 225-226.

King, M., "Commemoration of Infants on Roman Funerary Inscriptions", The Epigraphy of Death: Studies in the History and Society of Greece and Rome, ed. G. J. Oliver, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2000, 117-154.

Kleiner, D. E. E., "Women and Family Life on Roman Imperial Funerary Altars", Latomus, 46 (1987), 545-554.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (1984), II, 1, 618-855.

Manson, M., "The emergence of the small child in Rome (Third century BC-First century AD)", History of Education, 12, No. 3 (1983), 149-159.

Matheson, S. B., "The Divine Claudia: Women as Goddesses in Roman Art" in D. E. E. Kleiner and S. B. Matheson (eds.), I Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome, New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1996, 182-193.

Rawson, B., "Adult-Child Relationships in Roman Society", Marriage, Divorce, and Children in Ancient Rome, ed. B. Rawson, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991, 7-30.

Rawson, B., "Children in the Roman Familia", The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives, ed. B. Rawson, London & Sydney, Croom Helm, 1986, 170-200.

Susini, G., The Roman Stonecutter: An Introduction to Latin Epigraphy, trans. A. M. Dabrowski, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1973.

Toynbee, J. M. C., Death and Burial in the Roman World, London, Thames and Hudson, 1971, 245-253.

Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, VI, Charles Ede catalogue, May 1978, No. 21.

Comparanda:
Bieber, M., Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art, New York, New York University Press, 1977, Figs. 246-248 (Artemis of Versailles - prototype for reliefs).

Koch, G (and K. Wight), Roman Funerary Sculpture: Catalogue of the Collections, Malibu, California, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988, No. 30.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (1984), II, 2, Artemis 741, Artemis (in Thracia) 4, 14, Artemis/Diana 62, 137.