Images(4)

Osteotheke

Artist Unknown Roman artist

Datecirca 160–170

MediumMarble

Dimensions22 1/4 x 39 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. (56.5 x 100.3 x 60.3 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Anne and Carl Carlson in memory of Lynn and Karl Prickett

Object number88.2

On View

On view

ProvenanceProvenience unknown. [Art market, Rome, circa 1930][1] [Art market, New York, 1938–1939] [2]; Karl E. Prickett (?–1986), Greensboro, NC, 1940s; bequeathed to Anne and Carl I. Carlson Jr., Greensboro, 1987; given to NCMA, 1988.

[1] See Rodenwaldt 1938: 419n1.
[2] See News Release February 28, 1990, NCMA object file 88.2.Published ReferencesHenri-Irénée Marrou, Mousikos aner: étude sur les scènes de la vie intellectuelle figurant sur les monuments funéraires romains (Grenoble, Fr.: Didier & Richard, 1938) 37–38, cat. 1, plate 1.

Gerhart Rodenwaldt, "Ein Kleinasiatischer Kindersarkophag," Archaeologischer Anzeiger, no.52 (1938), 414–420, figs. 17–20.

Gerhart Rodenwaldt, “Ein Lykisches Motiv,” Archaeologischer Anzeiger no.55 (1940), 44-57, fig.2.

Friedrich Matz, Ein römisches Meisterwerk: Der Jahreszeitensarkophag Badminton-New York, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Ergänzungsheft 19 (1958), 88–90.

Nikolaus Himmelman-Wildschütz, “Fragment eines attischen Sarkophages,” Marburger Winckelmann-Programm (1959), 30n43.

Hans Wiegartz, Kleinasiatische Säulensarkophage: Untersuchungen zum Sarkophagtypus und zu den figürlichen Darstellungen, (Berlin: Gebr. Mann. Verlag., 1965), 43n54, 48, 62, 68, 72n17, 126–28, 170, cat. ROM O, plate 47.

Jim Jenkins, "Combining Ideas Make a Noble Garden," Greensboro Daily News (November 26, 1977), A6.

“La Chronique des Arts: Principles Acquisitions des Musées en 1988,” Supplement, Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1988), 29, illus. fig. 150.

Katie Mosher, “Ancient Coffin Planted in Museum,” News & Observer (Raleigh), March 1, 1990, B1.

Associated Press, “Planter Turns Out to be a Coffin,” Morganton [NC] News Herald, March 1, 1990, 10A.

“Planter Really Art,” Asheboro [NC] Courier Tribune, March 1, 1990, A3.

Abe D. Jones Jr., “Box Held Bones of a Roman. Backyard Planter Was Ancient Coffin,” Greensboro [NC] News & Record, March 2, 1990, B1.

Associated Press, “Old Flower Planter Made 1,800 Years Ago as Bones Coffin,” Durham [NC] Morning Herald, March 2, 1990, 2C.

“Ancient Art Found,” Hickory [NC] Record, March 2, 1990, 2B.

“Art Museum Gets Ancient Bones Casket,” Wilmington [NC] Morning Star, March 3, 1990, 6C.

“Area Couple Gives Coffin to Museum,” High Point [NC] Enterprise, March 4, 1990, 7D.

Associated Press, “Planter Turns Out to Be Ancient Art,” Sanford [NC] Herald, March 6, 1990, 5A.

“Coffin Gift,” The Pilot (Southern Pines, NC), March 8, 1990, 5C.

Melissa Clement, “Marble ‘Planter’ Turns Out to Be Rare Roman Artifact,” Fayetteville [NC] Observer, March 11, 1990, F1.

L. E. [Lisa Eveleigh], "Private Collectors Share Their Art," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Autumn 1992), briefly discussed and illus. (b-w) 13.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 32.

Christina Marie Hagan, "A Child's Sarcophagus in Raleigh," Master's Thesis, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994. (Reference Library and copy in file).

Mary Ellen Soles, entry for Osteotheke, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 37, illus. (color).

Mary Ellen Soles, entry for Osteotheke, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 76, illus. (color) 77.

H. Williams Hofer, “Uncovering Osteotheke: A ‘Place for Bones’ Finds Its Final Home at the NCMA,” Walter Magazine, November 2021, 33–35.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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