Date
203-212
Object Type
Relief
Subject
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara
About The Work
The archaeological object is a votive bas-relief from the Severan period (AD 203–212), preserved in two large fragments and accompanied by numerous inscriptions. It was originally set into a marble wall in Cava dei Fantiscritti (Carrara). The central aedicule is formed by two pilasters framing three deities from the Roman pantheon: Hercules, Jupiter, and Bacchus. Hercules is depicted with his usual iconography: heroic nudity, holding a club in his right hand and the lion’s skin in his left. Jupiter, at the center, is shown with a beard and curly hair, wearing a toga. Bacchus, positioned on the left, is accompanied by a panther—an animal associated with the Dionysian retinue—and holds a kantharos in his left hand, a Greek drinking cup used for wine, while his right hand grasps a thyrsus. Below the main relief runs a frame, probably intended for an inscription now lost. The surrounding surface bears the signatures of artists, architects, and travelers who, during the early modern period, journeyed to the quarries to admire it. The first mention of the bas-relief dates to 1442, in the Commentariorum of Ciriaco Pizzicolli. The fame of the artifact, a symbol of the marble quarries, turned it into a site of memory for artists, who left their engraved signatures on the surface around the aedicule. From the nineteenth century onward, the sculpture is well documented in local scholarship and in graphic and painted reproductions; among the earliest is a drawing by Saverio Saviolo, executed in 1812 and now preserved in the State Archive of Massa. The artifact was removed from the Fantiscritti quarries in 1863 by decree of the Ministry of Public Instruction and installed within the premises of the Accademia.
Title
Fantiscritti relief
Date
203-212
Object Type
Relief
Original Function
Collection
Technique / Support
Marble
Dimensions
cm 36x90
Holding institution
Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara
Bibliography and archival sources
E. Dolci, I marmi romani dell'Accademia, Lions Club Massa Carrara, 1990, pp. 50-51. Giuseppe Riga, Il masso dei Fantiscritti da Edicola votiva Romana in memoria degli scultori dell’Età moderna, in L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara Storia, patrimony, characters, curated by Marco Ciampolini, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale (in progress of publication). Marco Ciampolini, Le Firme nel Masso dei Fantiscritti, in L'Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara History, patrimony, characters, curated by Marco Ciampolini, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale (in progress of publication).
Unique identifier
ICCD_MINV_4332611522671