Campana Relief with a Nilotic Scene in the Princeton University Art Museum, August 2009

Campana Relief with a Nilotic Scene
Roman, Late 1st century BC- early 1st century AD
Terracotta

# Y1962-143

Originally brightly painted, this relief probably formed part of the decoration of a private residence. The arcade in the foreground establishes a sense of depth. The setting is the marshy Nile Delta, or at least that exotic locale as it existed in the Roman imagination. The crocodile and bellowing hippopotamus at the left are balanced on the right by water birds, another crocodile, and a boat with a pair of pygmy fishermen. The reed huts in the distance appear in many Roman depictions of the Nile. Both the pygmies and the exotic animals were familiar to Romans from spectacles and combats staged in the arena.

Text from the Princeton University Art Museum label.