Detail of a Marble Sarcophagus Fragment with the Death of Meleager in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2018

Marble sarcophagus fragment

Period:Mid-Imperial, Antonine

Date:mid-2nd century A.D.

Culture:Roman

Medium:Marble, Luni and Pentelic

Dimensions:Other (reconstructed): 38 1/8 in. × 8 3/4 in. × 46 7/8 in. (96.8 × 22.2 × 119.1 cm)

Classification:Stone Sculpture

Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1920

Accession Number:20.187

The relief, which originally formed the front panel of a large sarcophagus, depicts the death of the Greek hero Meleager, famous for killing the Calydonian boar. On other Roman sarcophagi this scene accompanies that of the hunt itself, showing Meleager spearing the ferocious boar. However, here the focus is on the dying hero who is being carried home surrounded by his grieving father and companions. During the Renaissance the scene became the prototype for artistic representations of the Deposition of Christ. The panel, as it now survives, includes 16th-century restorations.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/250926