Roman sculpture from Augustus to Constantine . Relief of Marcus Curtius.—Side by side withoriginal products of late third-century sculpture itis interesting to find what is probably the copy ofa Roman or Italic work of the archaic period. Thisis the well-known relief which is walled in on the leftof the staircase of the Palace of the Conservator!(Helbig, 562), but which once adorned the balustradeplaced round the Lacus Curtius in the Forum.* Itrepresents the romantic sacrifice of Marcus Curtiuswho, in order to appease the gods of the Lower World,leapt full armed into the mysterious chasm, the
Roman sculpture from Augustus to Constantine . Relief of Marcus Curtius.—Side by side withoriginal products of late third-century sculpture itis interesting to find what is probably the copy ofa Roman or Italic work of the archaic period. Thisis the well-known relief which is walled in on the leftof the staircase of the Palace of the Conservator!(Helbig, 562), but which once adorned the balustradeplaced round the Lacus Curtius in the Forum.* Itrepresents the romantic sacrifice of Marcus Curtiuswho, in order to appease the gods of the Lower World,leapt full armed into the mysterious chasm, the site ofwhich was afterwards named after him. At the backof the slab is an inscription with the name of LuciusNcevius Surdinus, Avho is probably the consul suffectusof 30 (under Tiberius).t Of late years, since Helbig * Hiilsen, Roman Forum, p. 140, Fig. 73. Our illustrationis from the original photograph, kindly lent by Professor Hiilsen. ?j- , vi. 1468. For the new inscription with this same name,cj. Class. Rev., 1906, p. SEVERUS TO DIOCLETIAN 325 (loc. at.) pronounced it a work of the Middle Ages or ofthe early Renaissance,the charming work has not enjoyedits old popularity. Furtwiingler, however, in publish-ing a gem which exactly reproduces the group of therelief, took occasion to pronounce himself unhesi-tatingly in favour of the genuinely antique origin ofthe relief itself.* He, moreover, saw no reason fordissociating it from the inscription at the back, and re-ferred it accordingly to the Augustan Age. But Hulsen,while likewise fully admitting the antique character ofthe relief, has pointed out that originally it had nothingto do with the inscription, but that an old inscribed slabhad been utilized at a later date for the copy of an This copy, he thinks, was executed to replacethe original, surmised to have been destroyed or injuredin the great fire under Carinus which gave occasion ofthe extensive building operations of Diocletian and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookp, booksubjectsculptureroman
