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In 1849, during the removal of some tomb slabs from the floor of the Basilica of Bonaria in Cagliari, a fragment of an Attic votive relief was found. In 1603 it had been used to cover the burial of the Catalan nobleman Francisco Arca, as indicated by the inscription on the back.
Fortunately, although the slab was reduced to its current size probably on this occasion, the relief was not erased.
Made of white Attic marble in the second half of the 4th century B.C., as indicated by the shape of the letters, the language and the stylistic features of the figures, the relief reproduces a banquet scene quite typical in the oriental world from the 5th century B.C. onwards. In the lost part a male figure was represented lying on the kline, the bed also used for banquets, while in the preserved part a seated female figure and a naked servant with vessels in his hands (a jug and a phiale) can be seen, next to a wine krater.
Singular in this relief is the presence in the background of three theater masks, to which a fourth is added between the hands of the woman, thus identifiable with the personification of Tragedy. The male figure lying down, as suggested by the setting and confirmed by the inscription, was the god Dionysus and the scene is imagined inside his temple, framed by columns with Doric capitals and architrave.
The masks hanging on the walls of the sanctuary were a widespread votive practice, also attested by archaeological findings and representations on the ceramic. Probably the relief was offered to the god within a sanctuary dedicated to him or in a theater, by commissioners related to the tragic representations. Another hypothesis is that it had been donated by a corego, that is, a wealthy citizen who financed the dramatic performances of Athens, but the most likely integration of the verb in the plural suggests the first hypothesis.
It is not clear when the relief, of Attic workmanship and material, could have come to Sardinia, but a likely hypothesis is that it was imported in Roman times, in the first century BC or a little later, when the fashion of using Greek works to adorn the luxurious residences Italic and provincial spread quickly, as attested by the famous letters of Cicero to Atticus.
INSCRIPTION
ΗΡΑΕΕΣ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΩΙ ΑΝΕ[ΘΗΚΑΝ
Heraees Dionysoi ane[thekan
The Eraeis dedicated to Dionysus
INSCRIPTION ON THE BACK OF THE SLAB
SEPULTURA DE FRANCISCO ARCA Y DE SUS EREUS ANI 1603
