Budapest Régiségei 34. (2001)

STUDIEN = TANULMÁNYOK - Djurić, Bojan: Production of marble sarcophagi in Poetovio 47-62

high roofs and large corner acroteria, such as those known primarily from northern Italy, belong to the same group.

56 The (probably) two-paneled roof

7 is carved, at least on the main side, to represent tegulae and imbrices (Fig. 16),

5S characteristic of many northern Italian lids.

59 The decoration is found on the acroteria and the triangular fields on the shorter sides, defined already in the first phase of the two-phase production of lids.

60 The usual decoration of the acroteria is the seasons, represented by male (Erotes) or female (Horae) busts with typical attributes - baskets filled with fruit

61 or flowers.

62 In one case (Fig. 15),

63 a nude, winged putto with a torch raised across his chest is portrayed in the acroterion,

64 while in another there is a portrait of a female with a hairstyle similar to those of the empresses Otacilia or Salonina

65 (Fig. 16). Triton is portrayed in one of the triangular fields on the shorter sides, blowing on a spiral conch-shell (Fig. 15), accompanied by dolphins. In the other field, the head of Medusa with a stylized leaf tendril, a characteristic motif on northern Italian sarcophagi lids

66 is represented. Inscriptions are a particularity of Poetovian sarcophagi lids. Three examples are preserved (Fig. IT)

67 along the long and narrow side of a roof. It can be surmised in each of the three examples that the lids covered entirely ornamented receptacles that had no space for inscriptions. However, there is also the possibility that these inscriptions complemented inscriptions in the central fields of the front panels of the sarcophagi receptacles.

68 The sarcophagi in the three groups described above were produced in local workshops from local marble, which was probably quarried in the surroundings of Smartno on Pohorje. Another fragment can be added to these groups, representing supposedly the only imported sarcophagus,

69 attributed to the garland sarcophagi (Fig.18). The third group of Poetovian sarcophagi is so closely linked in terms of structure and iconography to the typical form of Poetovian funerary monuments, ossuaria, that it is logical to conclude that their origins were in the very same workshops. The fact that ossuaries were characteristic exclusively in Poetovio only substantiates that the center of production of sarcophagi attributed to the third group was in this Roman town or its surrounding ager. What has already been said regarding ossuaries can only be repeated as concerns the tectonic composition of the ossuaries and sarcophagi in the third group.

70 However, not only the tripartite division of the front panel with the characteristic protrusive side fields is the same as on ossuaries. The repertoire of motifs and their arrangement within the decorative fields of the sarcophagi receptacles and lids are the same, perhaps even richer. The receptacles^display pairs of putti with torches, nude heroes and portraits of the deceased, as well as kantharos with vines and heraldic panthers. The acroteria on the lids usually have personifications of the seasons, occasionally also putti with torches or portraits of the deceased. These moved from the receptacles to the lids, just as occurred with the seasons, which moved from the lids to the front panels of the receptacles. Occasionally, there are Gorgonea or Triton with a spiral conch-shell in the triangular gables of the lids. Analogies may be found for all these motifs on Poetovian ossuaries, as well as on other funerary monuments in Noricum and Pannónia Superior, upon aediculae in particular. In this view, the personification of spring, a winged youth with a garland in his hands, his upper body turned en face, his head turned to the left, his legs crossing stride to the right (Fig. 7), in the fragmentary left part of the front panel of the sarcophagus is most interesting.

71 The sarcophagus is of the highest quality and the relief shows a close similarity with the seasons on Priscianus' aedicula in Sempeter near Celje.

72 M. Pochmarski Nagele attributed them to the large group of type XXI,

73 and dated them to the end of the 2

nd and the beginning of the 3

rd century. That the production of ossuaries in Poetovio was linked with northern Italian models has already been emphasized.

74 The sarcophagi of the third group only further confirm this with some other characteristics: the form of the lids using tegulae and imbrices, Gorgonea in the triangular gables, etc. On one hand we may speak of a connection between Poetovian workshops and northern Italian models, or at least those models to which the northern Italian workshops succumbed. On the other hand, we may ask whether Poetovian sarcophagi of the third group were exported to other provincial centers, and furthermore, whether they had any influence upon these products? As the most favorable transport routes were along the Drava and Danube, this type of trade and consequential influence should perhaps be sought primarily in the centers along these rivers. Sirmium is certainly one of the more important of these centers. Furthermore, the highest numbers of sarcophagi that are analogous in form and material with the third group of Poetovian sarcophagi originate from here. The first such sarcophagus is semi-finished,

75 with the characteristic tripartite division of the front panel (Fig. 4), the second is the same as Poetovian sarcophagi in form, yet with an decoration characteristic of workshops at Sirmium.

76 One of the highest quality Pannonian sarcophagi ever discovered was found in Sirmium;

77 it displays all the characteristics of Poetovian sarcophagi of the third group. Furthermore, we believe that it was produced in a Poetovian workshop.

78 An analogous sarcophagus from Szekszárd

79 also indicates affiliation with Poetovian workshops, according to its structure and motifs. Both are among the best of Pannonian sarcophagi production and represent close connections with Poetovian sarcophagi in forms, ornamental motifs and structure, as well as in their details. These details 49