Boston 59.336 (Sculpture)

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Collection:	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Title:	Fragment of a triumphal relief
Context:	Probably from Rome
Findspot:	Seen at Rome, Piazza Sciarra, where it was drawn by Pierre Jacques in 1577
Summary:	Head of a military man, wearing a lion-head helmet
Object Function:	Unknown
Material:	Marble
Sculpture Type:	Architectural
Category:	Separated fragments
Placement:	Frieze
Style:	Flavian
Technique:	Low relief
Original or Copy:	Original
Dimensions:	H. 0.335 m; W. 0.335 m
Scale:	Life-size
Region:	Latium
Period:	Flavian

Form & Style: Vermeule suggests that the head came from a late Julio-Claudian monument, such as the Arch of Claudius (erected in A.D. 51), which may not have been finished until the Flavian era. This would explain the Flavian stylistic details such as the drilled details in the headdress.

Condition: Single piece

Condition Description: A single piece, broken irregularly on all sides, preserves one head, broken off at the neck, with part of a large inscription on the back.

Material Description: Fine-grained white marble

Inscription: The back of the relief bears a funerary inscription, the letters of which are in the style of the Trajanic period, according to Vermeule, and are painted red. Vermeule suggests that they were used for a Renaissance or Quattrocento tomb, and may have named a member of the Aldobrandini family: VIRO CLARISSIMO (ET) PIENTISSIMO, "...of a most illustrious and pious man."

Associated Building: Rome, Arch of Claudius?

Collection History: Acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts from the New York art market. Earlier on the London art market, to which it came from a British Collection (perhaps that of the Duke of Buccleuch), according to Comstock & Vermeule.

Sources Used: Comstock & Vermeule 1976, 147 no. 237 (ill., with previous bibliography)

Other Bibliography: Vermeule & Comstock 1988, 112