indietro

Relief with a port scene

    • Provenienza:
      Excavations at Porto (“Imperial Palace”)
    • Data:
      Severian Age
    • Materiali:
      Alabastrine plaster cast
    • Dimensioni:
      height 122 cm, width 75 cm
    • Collocazione:
      Rome, Museo della Civiltà Romana, on loan to Museo della Via Ostiense (replica of the original made of greek marble at Museo Torlonia)
    • Inventario:
      inv. MCR 3931
  • Relief with a port scene

The port scene features a mix of narrative and allegorical registers. Certain details suggest this may be Ostia but the intentional absence of topographic details indicates a desire to allude to conventional "genre scenes" rather than propose a precise context. These portrayals must have been massively influenced by the famous lighthouse built between 300 and 280 BC on the isle of Pharos, facing Alexandria. A superb work of engineering by Sostratus of Cnidus, it was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.