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Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 9
Lesson 8: Middle empire- The Pantheon
- The Pantheon
- Pantheon
- Bronze head from a statue of the Emperor Hadrian
- Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli: A virtual tour
- Hadrian, The imperial palace, Tivoli
- Maritime Theatre at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
- Rome's layered history: the Castel Sant'Angelo
- Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
- Hadrian, Building the wall
- Hadrian’s Wall
- Empire: Medea Sarcophagus
- Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
- Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
- Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
- The importance of the archaeological findspot: The Lullingstone Busts
- Julia Domna’s Portraits
- The Arch of Septimius Severus, portal to ancient Rome
- The Severan Tondo: Damnatio Memoriae in ancient Rome
- Damnatio memoriae—Roman sanctions against memory
- Baths of Caracalla
- Severan marble plan (Forma Urbis Romae)
- Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
- Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
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Empire: Medea Sarcophagus
Medea Sarcophagus, 140 - 150 C.E., marble, 65 x 227 cm (Altes Museum, Berlin). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Wy do they have statues on a coffin? Isn't it a bit weird?(4 votes)
- It wasn't weird for the time period. Rich and/or powerful people throughout history have been as ostentatious in death as they were copiously consumptive in life. Wait until we get to Michaelangelo's sculptures for Pope Julius II's tomb.(15 votes)
- In the third scene, why is Medea missing part of her right arm? I assumed initially it was damage, but might it be intentional symbolism?(6 votes)
- I'm quite confident that it's damage; For one thing the surface where it is missing is rough, not smooth like it had been carved that way intentionally. The carving is a relief sculpture, and the arm itself was completely separated from the stone behind it, which means that it would have been one of the most fragile parts of the sculpture, so breaking off would be very likelly.(6 votes)
- At the very end you get a brief glimpse at one of the sides of the sarcophagus, is there another story told there? Or perhaps a continuation?(7 votes)
- there may be but i don't think it is continuation but another story(3 votes)
- How wealthy would I have to be today to get my coffin hand carved out of marble as beautifully has this one?(3 votes)
- Not many people these days would have the skill to carve like that and even if you could find someone, they would probablly want a lot of money!(3 votes)
- Why did the Romans stop cremating their dead and start burying them in sarcophagi? Did they believe in a bodily resurrection? Would this have been placed in the catacombs?(2 votes)
- Have a look at the video "Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus". In that video they are talking about the time the Romans stopped cremating their dead.(4 votes)
- i saw some statues on the sides, who or what are they?(3 votes)
- I have somehow, gotten into my head, that Medea had beautiful ankles (don't ask me how or why). I've scavenged the internet, but so far no luck. Anyone here who can confirm this? Or maybe it's not Medea, but then who was it?(2 votes)
- Medea was never an actual person, she was a character in Euripedes' play. But, Medea was the princess of Colchis, so, as any artist would, she is always depicted as a beautful woman with almost no imperfections so maybe thats why she has "beautiful ankles"(2 votes)
- Did I miss it? Did they say how long it took to put something like that together? I mean honestly even with modern tools and a team of skilled labour, you still would be looking at months maybe years. Its just staggering the man hours it represents. Thanks T.S.(2 votes)
- Do you feel, as I do, that the Romans equaled and in many ways surpassed the greeks in most all art forms?(1 vote)
- Huh. I have art critic, Robert Hughes, stating, "When it (great ancient roman sculpture) occurs one may fairly suppose the authorship of Greek or at least Greek-trained carvers." Not fair to say that?(1 vote)
- at2:42there was fire on both creusa and her father. isn't creusa the only one on fire.(2 votes)
- in the actual story, Medea made the presents for creusa poisonous so creusa and anybody who touched her burn to death also. It isn't shown here, but Creusa's father also burned to death with his daughter(2 votes)
Video transcript
A conversation with Khan Academy's Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker. Available on http://www.googleartproject.com, http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org We're in the Altes Museum in Berlin and we're looking at their incredible Medea sarcophagus. Now, this is one of the earliest heavily carved sarcophagi, at a time when burials were just beginning in ancient Rome. Before that usually the bodies of the deceased were cremated. So this is a really early carved sarcophagus, and it's a real show-stopper. So it's marble, and it's deeply carved. It's relief sculpture, but the figures are almost carved in the round in many places. The sarcophagus tells the tragedy of Jason and Medea. And this comes down to us from a play by Euripides. The story is read from left to right, and it tells the story in four parts. On the extreme left is this magnificent rendering of Jason. You might be familiar with the story of Jason and the Argonauts, and Jason stealing the Golden Fleece -- with the help of the king's daughter, and the king by the way was the owner of the Golden Fleece, Jason is able to make off with it. In the meantime the king's daughter, Medea, fell in love with Jason, and she fled with him back to Greece with the Golden Fleece. and they lived happily together for 10 years. The problem came when Jason decided he wanted to leave Medea and marry someone else - Creusa. We see Jason on the far left, looking down at his two children, who are bringing Creusa, his new bride, their bridal gift from Medea - a beautiful crown and a sumptuous gown. The problem was that Medea was extremely jealous of Jason's new wife. And although she seems to accept this new fate, and in fact gives Jason these presents, she was plotting her revenge. And so Creusa looks down at the two children. She's in her father's palace. We see some garlands and columns in the background. She looks regal. She is enthroned. And just look at the beautiful carving and the way in which her body is revealed by the almost wet drapery there, which might recall an earlier Greek style. Her left arm reaches back behind her and overlaps with the next scene where we see Jason again. And in this scene we see the climax of the story. The garments that the children have brought to Creusa are really a present from Medea. And as soon as Creusa puts them on they burn Creusa to death. Her father tries to save her and is burned to death as well. So we have the unfolding of this terrible plot, this terrible kind of revenge. And Jason looks on from the left. The father pulls his hair out as he watches his daughter burn. Creusa forms this remarkable figure. Her arms lifted. her hair streams behind her. Her drapery almost reads as flames enveloping her. There's a real sense of desperation. And look at the way her palms are opened up towards us. Her mouth opens a little bit wider, and there really does seem to be this sense of horror, this sense of desperation. Parts of this are carved so deeply, for example her arm is completely removed from the background. And so she really emerges as an almost complete three-dimensional figure. It's exceptional carving. The sense of emotion. The sense of intensity. The sense of action, even though this is a piece of stone. In the third scene out of four, we see Medea looking down at her two children, who are carelessly playing ball. But this is not an innocent moment for Medea because she's already plotting to kill them. In her revenge for Jason she kills her own children. So we really see the tragedy deepening here. Look at her face. There is this sense of action in her hands as she pulls the sword from its sheath. But she seems to cock her head down in a mournful way. In this last scene we see Medea. She's able to escape thanks to the intervention of the God Helios, who lends her his chariot and flies her away. And you can see her actually being lifted off the ground, her body forming a diagonal, with one of her dead children over her left shoulder and the other child's legs are visible in the chariot below. You know, the story is so intense. One wonders why this would be chosen for a sarcophagus. It was common for Greek mythology to be illustrated on sarcophagi. But this tragic story of Medea. Why would you choose that? One thought is that the person who died, whose sarcophagus this was, had died before her own marriage and would be unable to have children herself. And so perhaps a kind of personal tragedy that can be expressed in mythological form in this classic narrative from Euripides. A conversation between Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker in from of Medea Sarcophagus. c. 140 B.C.E. (Altes Museum, Berlin)