PEDIMENT DEPICTING THE FOU SEASONS
Carrara white marble
The relief presented here draws iconographic inspiration from the lids of Roman sarcophagi that spread between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD; this is a vast class of sarcophagi featuring the front and/or the lid marked by the presence of seasonal allegories such as Erotes and Horae. The theme, expressed in a multitude of variations, is linked to the fertile cyclical nature of the earth and the transience of time, thus establishing a symbolic parallelism with the afterlife, the apotheosis of the deceased, and their victory over physical death.
It is important to emphasize how Roman sarcophagi maintained a functional continuity throughout history; unlike other monuments from the Roman era, in fact, they never fell into disuse and were reused as tombs for prominent figures precisely because of the prestige that these caskets continued to hold even in the medieval and Renaissance periods, testifying to their paradigmatic role in figurative culture. Among the most emblematic cases, we can mention the sarcophagus depicting the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus, in the monumental cemetery of Pisa, in which Beatrice of Tuscany was buried in 1076; the one in which Buscheto, the architect of the cathedral of the same city, was buried in 1110; and the early Christian one, in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence, in which Giuliano Davanzati chose to rest.
Our relief is based on sarcophagi similar to the one preserved at the Cleveland Museum of Art, dated to 100-125 AD, in which, as already mentioned, we find the four allegories of the seasons accompanied by the Erotes. The Horae are depicted in symmetrically opposed pairs, all lying in the same position, dressed in chiton and himation – the cloak inflated in an arch above the head of each figure – while the genii carry different attributes depending on the time of year symbolized; from right to left we find the allegory of summer (the only one depicted with bare breasts), autumn, winter, and spring, recognizable thanks to their different attributes.
Italy, XVII century
cm 26x162x8
