Sarah E. Lepinski

Cynthia Hazen Polsky/Metropolitan Museum of Art Visiting Curator
October 9–December 1, 2023
Profession
Associate Curator, Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Project description

In Rome, I researched the iconography and early collecting history of a large strigulated marble sarcophagus (2021.264.2) in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The sarcophagus belongs to a popular type fashioned in Rome, and its vicinity, in the second half of the third century CE that is carved in the shape of a large tub, or lenos, and elaborately decorated with two lions felling prey on each end. In the late nineteenth century, it was part of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Mortimer of Old Westbury, Long Island, New York. The sarcophagus came to the museum in 2021 as a gift of Carmel and Eugene Krauss, MD. Following its cleaning, conservation, and reconstruction, the sarcophagus will be installed in the Met’s Roman galleries where its striking scale and iconography will augment the current presentation of cultural practices surrounding death and memory in the Roman world. The research conducted in Rome will inform the in-gallery content and establish the groundwork for a publication of the sarcophagus, which will situate the work of art within its ancient and modern contexts.