Grand Tour souvenir - An marble model of Scipio Barbatus sarcophagus

This model reproduces the sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, discovered in Rome, in1780, in the Tomb of the Scipios along the Via Appia. The only sarcophagus found intact within the complex, the original was transferred by Pope Pius VI to the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican, where it remains one of the key monuments of Roman Republican sculpture.
Archaic in form and conceived as an altar whose lid is flanked by volutes carved with scale motifs, the model faithfully replicates the architectonic façade, including a Doric frieze alternating triglyphs and metopes above the epitaph carved in archaic Latin:

« CORNELIVS·LVCIVS·SCIPIO·BARBATVS·GNAIVOD·PATRE
PROGNATVS·FORTIS·VIR·SAPIENSQVE—QVOIVS·FORMA·VIRTVTEI·PARISVMA
FVIT—CONSOL CENSOR·AIDILIS·QVEI·FVIT·APVD·VOS—TAVRASIA·CISAVNA
SAMNIO·CEPIT—SVBIGIT·OMNE·LOVCANA·OPSIDESQVE·ABDOVCIT »

Translated as: Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus, descendant of Cnaeus his father, a courageous and cultivated man, whose beauty equalled his valor; he was consul, censor, aedile among you; he conquered Taurasia, Cisauna, the Samnium, subdued all of Lucania and brought back hostages.

Scipio Barbatus, who died in 280 BC, was one of the earliest great generals of the gens Cornelia, victor over the Etruscans at Volterra and direct ancestor of Scipio Africanus. His memory inaugurates a long line of magistrates and commanders who shaped the history of Rome during the Republic and the Empire.

In the 18th and 19th century, the rediscovery of Antiquity and the circulation of archaeological models in Roman workshops made this reproduction a prized souvenir for Grand Tour travellers, comparable to reductions of the Trajan Column, the Column of Antoninus, the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, or the colonnade of the Temple of Vespasian.

Comparable models sold at auction:
– Collection of the Marquise de Ravenel, Christie’s London, 22 November 2007, lot 189
– Charles Plante Collection, Christie’s London, 4 June 2008, lot 10
– Christie’s New York, 12 December 2012, lot 526