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A marble slab, built into a private chapel in a cemetery in Catania, has on it a centauromachy, carved in relief. In a recent publication the author observes that at the start of the century the chapel belonged to a Catanian antiquary, who decorated it with sculpture from various places and periods; apart from this, nothing is known about the provenience of the slab. He also comments that the whole face has been re-cut at an unknown date, but certainly in modern times, so that an exact judgement of the style is impossible, and adds that the theme was a common one in ancient art, citing in particular the metopes from the south side of the Parthenon and the frieze from the temple of Apollo at Bassae. It is possible to go somewhat further; the nine figures on the relief are all copied from the frieze from Bassae; reading from left to right, the first four figures correspond to Slab 526; the fifth one to the left-hand centaur on Slab 521; the next two to the left-hand pair on Slab 525, and the last couple to the group of a Greek and a centaur on Slab 521. It might seem impossible to decide beyond all doubt if the Catania relief is an ancient copy of the frieze, re-cut in modern times, or if it is entirely modern; the copyist has indeed taken certain liberties with his original, varying some of the details—for instance, the position of the right forearm of the right-hand centaur—and replacing the woman on Slab 521 by two figures from another slab, but these changes are perhaps not inconceivable in an ancient copy. Two other details, however, are decisive.
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1965
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I am indebted to the Trustees of the British Museum and to Mr. D. E. L. Haynes, Keeper of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, for permission to publish photographs of the frieze from Bassae; to Mr. C. O. Waterhouse for the pictures of Henning's casts; to Mr. D. M. Bailey for much information about modern versions of ancient lamps, and for informing me about the copies in Naples and in Manchester; and to the authorities of the Warsaw Museum for a photograph of the relief on a lamp in their collection and for permission to publish it.
1 Tusa, Vincenzo, I Sarcofagi Romani in Sicilia (Atti dell'Accademia di Scienze, Lettere e Arti di Palermo, Supplemento no. 5) 45 ff.Google Scholar, no. 12; pls. 26–29, figs. 39–44.
2 The slabs are numbered according to A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. i. Conveniently illustrated, Kenner, H., Der Fries des Tempels von Bassae–Phigaleia: 526 on pl. 7Google Scholar; 521 on pl. 2; 525 on pl. 6; 521 and 526 also here, Plate 47.
3 Metropolitan Museum Studies iv (1933) 214–15; fig. 11.
4 Magnus, Otto, von Stackelberg, Baron, Der Apollotempel zu Bassae in Arcadien und die daselbst ausgegrabenen Bildwerke (Rome, 1826)Google Scholar, pl. 6. Cockerell, C. R., The Temples of Jupiter Panhellenius at Aegina and of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae near Phigaleia in Arcadia (London, 1860), pl. 12Google Scholar; the scheme reproduced by Dinsmoor, loc. cit., pl. ii.
5 See again for the reconstruction, more conveniently, Dinsmoor, loc. cit., pl. ii.
6 See DNB xxv, 426.
7 The Patras reliefs first mentioned, von Duhn, F., AM iii (1878) 68–69Google Scholar; published, Gurlitt, L., AM v (1880) 364–7 and pl. 15Google Scholar; judged modern, Treu, G., AZ; xl (1882) 59–66Google Scholar; the argument clinched, Kette, R., AZ xl (1882) 165–8.Google Scholar
8 AE (1914) 58, n. 2; Dinsmoor, loc. cit. 215. Our illustration shows the slab after the removal of the plaster make-up, and completed by a cast of the new fragment presented by the Greek Government in 1910.
9 Bernhard, M. L., Lampki Starożytne, no. 233, pl. 52.Google Scholar D. M. Bailey points out that this and many other lamps and vases belong to a class of modern copies of antiquities, and adds several other groups of lamps which are not ancient; Antiquity xxxiii (1959) 218 ff.; Museums Journal lx (1960–61) 39 ff.; his fig. 5c illustrates an example of the same two figures on a lamp belonging to a different and inferior group. With the Warsaw lamp he also compares Spinazzola, V., Le Arti Decorative in Pompei e nel Museo Nazionale di Napoli, pl. 296Google Scholar, second from the top, on the right, and an unpublished lamp, Manchester R 1568.