On view
Ancient Mediterranean Art
Relief from a Christian sarcophagus, the Good Shepherd,
ca. 300 CE
Roman
Roman Imperial Period, Tetrarchic Period, ca. 284–305 CE, ca. 30 BCE–476 CE
y1952-169
Within an architectural structure consisting of a pediment and spiral fluted columns, a young shepherd stands with a sheep slung over his shoulders. The boy is dressed in a belted, long-sleeved tunic, laced boots, and puttees, protective wrappings for the legs to guard against thorny underbrush. Flanking him are two sheep and two trees, in one of which roosts a bird. The slab probably was cut from the center of a sarcophagus of strigilated type, on which three reliefs are separated by wavy, fluted ornament. The image of the faithful herder carrying a lost animal has roots in earlier Greek and Roman art. It was later adapted to serve as an image of Christ as the Good Shepherd and often appears on early Christian sarcophagi like this one.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Relief from a Christian sarcophagus, the Good Shepherd
Dates
ca. 300 CE
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
36.3 x 30.5 x 6.4 cm (14 5/16 x 12 x 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of the Friends of the Princeton University Art Museum
Object Number
y1952-169
Place Made
Europe, Italy
Culture
Period
Materials
Purchased by the Museum from Piero Tozzi, Rome, in 1952
Relief from a Sarcophagus with Christ as the Good Shepherd
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Art of the Late Antique from American Collections: a loan exhibition of the Poses Institute of Fine Arts [held at] Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, December 18, 1968-February 16, 1969, (Waltham, MA: Poses Institute of Fine Arts?, 1968).
, cat. no. 30; pl. XVII - R. G. Calkins, A medieval treasury: an exhibition of Medieval art from the third to the sixteenth century, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1968)., cat. no. 42, p. 129f, pl. 42 (illus.)
- Kurt Weitzmann, ed., Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh: catalogue of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 19, 1977, through February 12, 1978, (New York : The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979)., cat. no. 137 (illus.); pl. 3 (color illus.)
- John Olbrantz and Thomas Schlotterback, Five thousand years of faces, (Bellevue, WA: Bellevue Art Museum, 1983).
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Natalie B. Kampen, E. Marlow, and R.M. Molholt, What is Man?: changing images of masculinity in Late Antique art, (Portland, OR: Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, 2002).
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 263 (illus.)
- A. Lazaridou, ed., Transition to Christianity: art of late antiquity, 3rd-7th century AD, (New York: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation; Athens: In collaboration with the Byzantine and Christian Museum, 2011)., p. 131; cat. no. 91
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 315
