Relief Fragment with the Head of a Soldier and Fragment of a Lorica Segmentata

Title

Relief Fragment with the Head of a Soldier and Fragment of a Lorica Segmentata

Publisher

Lawrence Technological University

Date Created

May 20, 2019

Creator2

Aluzzo, Adrienne (photograph)

Work Type

visual works (works)

Date

c. 90 AD

Work Location

Michigan (state)
Ann Arbor (inhabited place)

Style/Period

Flavian

Subject

reliefs (sculptures)
soldiers

Description

View of high relief sculpture of Roman soldier reconstructed from two fragmentary pieces purchased in the early 1900's by Francis Kelsey from the University of Michigan and a German Archaeologist, Paul Hartwig, housed at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor, MI. "Although scholars knew the sculptural fragments had been found near a building that the emperor Diocletian (AD 284-305) had constructed on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, they did not know to which ancient Roman building the sculptures belonged. On the basis of style and workmanship, the fragments were dated to the Flavian era, two hundred years before Diocletian's reign ... However, the fragments that Kelsey had purchased remained unidentified for almost eighty years. In 1977, Anne Haeckl proposed that the head of Vespasian may have come from the Templum Gentis Flaviae, but it was not until 1978 that it was discovered, by Professor Gerhard Koeppel of the University of North Carolina, that the Hartwig head of a soldier (MNR 310257) and the Kelsey breastplate (KM 2431) joined perfectly. This discovery ultimately led to the current collaboration between the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma. In 1980, Professor Koeppel published all the Hartwig-Kelsey fragments and attributed them to the Templum Gentis Flaviae. The rejoined Hartwig-Kelsey fragments represent the earliest surviving example of sculptural decoration from a Roman imperial funerary complex,"--from Images of Empire online exhibition site for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

Material/Medium

Pentelic marble

Reproduction Type

jpeg

ID Number

LTU-KM007

Files

LTU-KM007.jpg
Date Added
May 20, 2019
Collection
LTU Digital Images
Item Type
VRA Core
Tags
,
Citation
“Relief Fragment with the Head of a Soldier and Fragment of a Lorica Segmentata,” LTU Digital Images, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ltuimagecollection.omeka.net/items/show/18048.