Antiquities
This is the third and final print that Piranesi dedicated to the sarcophagus of Alexander Severus (c. 235 AD). In this image, the short ends of the sarcophagus are presented, framing the Portland Vase which sits at the centre of the print. Piranesi explains the composition of the figures, rendered in this series by Piranesi’s collaborator, Jean Barbault, as scenes from the Rape of the Sabine Women, noting at ‘B’ Hersilia, the Sabine wife of Romulus who is credited in some versions - including Ovid’s Metamorphoses - with bringing the war between the Sabines and Romans to an end. Alongside the Portland Vase, which Piranesi here describes as being of agate rather than cameo glass, Piranesi depicts a small cross-section of the sarcophagus, labelled C, in order to demonstrate that it was hollowed out from a single block of marble, work that corresponded to the high status of its proposed occupant. The Vase is pictured within the sarcophagus, in order to indicate its location when discovered in 1582 but also to illustrate the height of the sarcophagus’ sides. Above the cross section of the sarcophagus is a circular relief of a young man, which appears on the base of the Vase and is not believed to be original to it. Piranesi’s manipulation of scale here distorts the viewer’s perspective of both Vase and sarcophagus; they are presented as of similar size, with the Vase’s placement in the foreground increasing its overall size. It is only through careful examination of the cross-section that the viewer understands the monumental size of the sarcophagus in relation to the Vase.
Uno de’ Fianchi dell’Urna … from Antichità Romane, vol. II, plate XXXV
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