Soundless but eloquent witnesses: depictions of musicians and musical instruments on roman funerary monuments
p. 47-56
Résumés
La musique était omniprésente dans la vie quotidienne des Romains. L’étude des représentations que portent les monuments funéraires de Rome et des provinces de l’Empire romain montre que des représentations d’instruments de musique et de musiciens se rencontrent non seulement sur les monuments des musiciens professionnels, mais également associées à des représentations de sujets liés à la vie de tous les jours ou de thèmes mythologiques, qui incluent parfois des instruments de musique ou des personnes qui en jouent. Cet article analyse ces scènes du point de vue de leur réalisme dans les détails organologiques des instruments et la posture des musiciens, à la lumière des informations fournies par les inscriptions et les sources littéraires.
The music was omnipresent in everyday Roman life. A study of the representations on grave monuments from Rome and from the provinces of the Roman Empire concludes that depictions of musical instruments and musicians are to be found not only on monuments of professional musicians. In many other cases, the representations of subjects from real life or mythological themes, include musical instruments or people playing music. The paper examines such scenes in terms of realism, organological details of the instruments and the gestures of the musicians in the light of information given by inscriptions and written sources.
Die Musik war im römischen Alltag allgegenwärtig. Eine Untersuchung der Darstellungen auf Grabdenkmälern in Rom und in den Provinzen hat festgestellt, daß Abbildungen von Musikinstrumenten und Musikern nicht nur auf Denkmälern von Berufsmusikern zu sehen sind. In vielen anderen Fällen enthalten die Darstellungen Sujets aus realistischen oder mythologischen Themen, zu denen auch Musikinstrumente oder musizierende Personen gehören. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht solche Szenen im Hinblick auf Realitätstreue, organologischen Details der Instrumente sowie die Gestik der Musiker vor dem Hintergrund der durch Inschriften und schriftlichen Quellen erhaltenen Informationen.
Entrées d’index
Mots-clés : monuments funéraires, représentations de musiciens, instruments de musique
Keywords : funerary monuments, depictions of musicians, musical instruments
Schlüsselwörter : Grabdenkmälern, Darstellungen von Musikern, Musikinstrumenten
Texte intégral
1Music was a constant and important element throughout Roman society. Thematic investigations have been done on different aspects of music, such as its role in the army, in the various cults and in sports, including gladiatorial games. Others studies focus on organology: on the materiality of specific types and “families” of musical instrument, such as stringed and so-called “brass” instruments1.
2From a methodological point of view, research on Roman music draws its evidence from a variety of ancient sources: philological, iconographical and archaeological. An important difference was made by the procedure chosen for the evaluation of the information2. Some used to attribute to each piece of information a value of its own in the discussion, others preferred to verify each piece of information through the different sources, while others accepted the unpleasant reality of the very scarce state and level of knowledge available. I have chosen funerary monuments because they provide specific information on individual Romans: a particular person within a family and/or a familia, with a specific relationship to the community in which he or she lived. The random character of the preserved information, as well as the small number of people who could have afforded to commission funerary monuments with relief depictions, delineates the parameters of research.

Fig. 1. Grave altar of Myropnous from Rome, Via Appia, now in Florence, Galleria degli Ufizzi (after Boschung, 1987, p. 109, nr. 864, pl. 46).

Fig. 2. Detail of the large gravestone of a successful auletai from Corinth dated to the second-third century AD (after Michaud, 1970, fig. 131).
3In Rome and Italy during the Republican and early Imperial-eras, funerary buildings with relief friezes, as well as urns and gravestones in the shape of altars (Alexandrescu, 2010, cat. P21-24), continued an Etruscan tradition of depicting on friezes games and gladiatorial displays. They were offered either in celebration of important events in the life of the community or as part of funerary celebrations organized by a family. The composition of such scenes finds of course good parallels outside the funerary milieu.
4The importance which the Romans attached to the decoration of funerary monuments is known from several written sources. Several aspects may impact on the meanings we may read into such decoration. The wealth of the deceased person together with his/her (usually his) social and sometimes political status, could all be expressed through images representing the spectacles and gladiatorial games which he/she had financed3. Since the number of musicians a family had been accustomed to hire was a further sign of its wealth and status, this too could be referenced, and it seems that it was. Groups of three musicians playing the same type of instrument are often to be seen: three cornicines (cornu-players) or three tubicines (tuba-players; Alexandrescu, 2010, p. 101).
5The richest group comprises sarcophagi, especially those with more complex iconographic compositions, while gravestones and funerary altars continued to be decorated with musical instruments and portraits. Ornamental motifs were chosen from the thematic elements associated with the rich Dionysiac and Apollinic repertoires, but with prominence given to elements related to the afterlife. Therefore the presence of an individual type of instrument, such as panpipes, tibiae or cymbals, can rarely be interpreted as more than a convention of the funerary iconography. Some times the depictions are surprisingly realistic as comparative investigations were able to conclude.
6The original locations of the different kinds of monuments do not follow general rules. They could be on display along the streets, in funerary precincts or chambers, or in columbaria4.
7The Roman era is also one that sees the production of the first examples of gravestones (fig. 1 and 2) and sarcophagi of musicians (both men and women), some of them depicted with representations of instruments and/or portraits5.

Fig. 3. The Great Battle Sarcophagus Ludovisi with the indication of the igures of musicians (the author using a photography from the Einsiedeln Photoarchiv, Glasplatte 01590).
8Besides representations of musicians on gravestones, musicians’ figures were used by artists as a symbol to indicate to the viewer which stories, scenes or particular moments were being depicted, especially in scenes which combine more than one action, those being differentiated by the played musical instruments (such as battle, procession and sacrifice). The artist may have highlighted, for example, the most important figure in a scene, or represented a particular moment of the narrative by showing the musician playing or holding an instrument.
9The customized compositions of the late secondand third-century “Great Battle Sarcophagi”, such as the Portonaccio and Ludovisi (fig. 3), are special cases6. On these the musicians – who are always placed in the upper part of the composition – point out the principal actor in the “story” and the particular moments to be emphasized: the victorious imperator, the victorious Roman army. In the written sources such a pointer role was assigned to the name of the musical instrument7. In both cases (narration and depiction), the creators assumed that the viewer or reader was aware of the significance of the details, but since their meanings are for us often hidden, the true connotations of depicted instruments remain obscure.
Musicians and musical instruments
10Based on the extant corpus of monuments it is possible to distinguish several categories of musical instruments and the people playing them. Mythological themes remain problematic, for the meanings they attracted in Antiquity are not yet clear; consequently the interpretation must be regarded as subjective (Zanker, Ewald, 2004, p. 9-27).
11The tubicen is also present in scenes of mythological battles, usually in one of the upper corners of the composition, on the principal face of a sarcophagus. Stringed instruments of various shapes are very common in compositions with a mythological theme.
12But one of the most eloquent cases of a musical instrument with persistent mythological association is the tuba. It can be found, for instance, in depictions of the famous Greek scene detailing the discovery of Achilles among the daughters of king Lycomedes, on the island of Scyros (Alexandrescu, 2007a).

Fig. 4. Detail of the gravestone of Torinia Neacula, dated to the irst century AD, from Trassaco, now in Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli (photo by the author).

Fig. 5. Detail of the right upper corner of the Great Battle Sarcophagus Ludovisi (photo by the author).
13Cornicines it seems were never depicted in mythological scenes, and their presence in battle scenes, especially on sarcophagi, indicates that such scenes were meant to represent real events. Moreover, the cornicen, being exclusive to Roman iconography, can be taken to indicate that a particular battle scene is, for example, not Hellenistic. The presence of the cornicen with his instrument and a Roman military standard identifies an otherwise generic battle scene as Roman (fig. 4 and 5). In sum, in Roman iconography the cornu, unlike the tuba, seems to serve a purely functional role, with no mythological or other connotations. Significantly, this also seems true of its treatment by Roman authors. Among the less known examples is a fragmentary marble urn of a former tribunus militum found in Danilo Gornje (fig. 6), dated to the second half of the second century AD8, depicting a cornicen wearing the animal skin on his head and bearing his instrument on the left shoulder as well as a soldier with a vexillum next to him.
14Among the most popular musical instruments, with numerous variations in shape and mechanisms, are the double pipes (tibiae / auloi). Such instruments are depicted in sacrificial scenes, near the altar, in banquet scenes (fig. 7), where they are usually accompanied by other musical instruments, but also in religious processions, real or mythical.
15One of the variants of tibiae (the Phrygian tibiae/auloi) is known to be part of the cult inventory of the Great Mother Goddess, Cybele, in which context it is depicted together with the tambourine and the cymbals. It is shown among other defining elements on funerary monuments of her priests9. However the most complex variant of tibiae is depicted in mythological compositions10.
16When the deceased was a musician and his or her instrument is referred to in an accompanying inscription, the depiction beneits our discussion to the extent that it connects a particular type of instrument with a particular instrument name (e.g. nablum in Dion; Busch, 2001) (fig. 8).
17On musicians’ gravestones, which form an especially important category of evidence, inscriptions and visual representations may even identify the individual’s name, rank or position. Funerary monuments of military musicians thus form a good starting point for identifying types of instruments used in the army, especially trumpets, since epitaphs from the late first century AD onwards mention the function of the deceased.

Fig. 6. Marble urn from Danilo Gornje (photo by A. Rendic-Miocevic).

Fig. 7. Fragmentary gravestone from Intercisa with depiction of musicians by the banquet (after Barkóczi et alii, 1954, Nr. 103).
18On the other hand, it can be observed that funerary inscriptions of “civilian” trumpeters usually do not mention their profession, or, if the inscription gives such information, there is no depiction accompanying the epitaph11.
19One should also bear in mind that each gravestone was uniquely made, and shaped and decorated according to diverse circumstances. Even the seemingly straightforward representation of a musician on a gravestone accompanied by an inscription mentioning his or her profession has to be verified by means of comparison with further iconographic sources, in order to identify the specific shape of an instrument with its name (Alexandrescu, 2009).
20Funerary monuments of players of wind instruments either show the instrument being held, but not played, or the instrument alone is represented, more often revealing only its essential identifying elements.
21By contrast, for players of stringed instruments the situation is somehow reversed, in that, at least on the monuments which we know, the deceased person is depicted either playing or preparing to play12.
22A stringed instrument is rarely shown on its own, but is more often seen together with the other instruments that the deceased played. The inscription completes the information of the depiction. Special cases are the sarcophagus of Iulia⁄ Tyrannia in Arles (Gaggadis-robin, 2005, no 55) and the simple sarcophagus of Aelia Sabina in Aquincum (Németh, 1999, 64 no 182), lacking depiction, but with a most eloquent epitaph mentioning that the husband, hydraularius in the legio II Adiutrix, put the coffin for his wife, artibus edocta, singing and playing the water-organ and stringed instruments.
The “message” of the reliefs and the role of the musicians or of the musical instrument
23The importance given by the Romans to the decoration of the funerary monument is known from different written sources, the most popular being, of course, the text of Petronius in Cena Trimalchionis (71-72). In regard to the intended message of the decoration of the funerary monuments we would like to stress out several aspects considered to be the most relevant.
24Musical instruments appear on some of the so-called vita Romana sarcophagi. The Roman citizen had to fulfill and demonstrate the fulfillment of certain civic duties and virtues, and this too could be expressed. One such aspect could be exemplified by the so-called general’s (i.e. army commander’s) sarcophagus or Feldherrnsarkophage, of which a fine example is preserved in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua13. There the deceased is presented in three scenes that we suppose are meant to be representative of key elements of his life: performing a sacrifice, attending his wedding and acting as a merciful general. The same virtues (virtus, ides, clementia) could also have found a way of expression via chosen mythological subjects like the subject of Achilles on Skyros (= virtus) (Zanker, Ewald, 2004, p. 37-61).

Fig. 8. Gravestone of a family with depiction of nablum, instrument mentioned by the inscription, from Dion (after Busch, 2001).

Fig. 9. Detail of a cithareda on a sarcophagus (after Ewald, 1999, pl. 17/1).
25Wealth, epitomized by contentment and the enjoyment of life, was represented through other iconographic choices on funerary reliefs. To be noted among the monuments of interest are the ones depicting the ensemble of dancers and players of crotala, tibiae and scabellum, common on the decoration of Roman interiors (both as mosaics and wall paintings) and popular for the funerary iconography in Rome and the provinces (like for example Pannonia-fig. 7)14. One of these choices was to insert an image of a banquet or scenes typical of daily life, involving such additional persons as ensemble musicians (playing the panpipes, tibiae, tambourine, scabellum, sometimes also a stringed instrument) and dancers. Such elements are also to be found in the interior decoration of Roman houses.
26On the “sarcophagus of P. Caecilius Vallianus”, so called for its later owner, the composition on the principal face combines a particularly rich and detailed banquet scene, including a portrait of the wife playing the lute, accompanied by a tibicina15.

Fig. 10. Fragment of a funerary monument from Dijon (after http://nesp. mmsh. univ-aix. fr/for Esperandieu IV, nr. 04-3465,02).

Fig. 11. Block from a funerary monument from Arlon, now in Metz (photo by Chr. Gugl).
27One further aspect of Roman life in which music played a significant role was education16. Among the existing examples mentioned here are the portrait of a young boy shown together with the Muses (as Apollo Musagetes, Terpsichore, with dance and chorus), depicted as virtuous citharoedus17, and the group of sarcophagi with portraits of the so-called “ménage d’intellectuels” (Marrou, 1964, p. 210): the man as philosopher, the wife playing a lyre, a lute or some other complex string instrument.
28In the Late Roman period the importance of emphasizing to the viewing public the educational level and general knowledge that an individual had attained seems to have been quite significant, judging from the number of monuments with depictions of men (and also, albeit rarely, of women) holding a scroll, known as a volumen, a sign not only of a person’s ability to read and write but also of his/her intellectual and philosophical activity.
29Among women the evidence for educational achievement seems to have been more commonly expressed through musical activity, especially the ability to play a stringed instrument. One interesting example is the mosaic from the Menmosyne tomb in Antioch (Gavrili, 2010, fig. 2), now in Worchester Museum. From the category of interiors decoration a good parallel is to be seen on the mosaic from the villa in Mariamin, now in the museum in Hama, depicting a group of women playing the water-organ, tibiae, cithara and cymbals and forked-cymbal, as well as acetabula (Böhm, 1998; Gavrili-despoti, 2005).
30However, there are also examples of men playing the same, even if for the Roman society the stringed instruments had a definite feminine connotation18.
31How literally the depictions on these funerary monuments reflect reality – indeed, in what regard the ancients held such representations – is something that, at least within the period under study, underwent changes. Thus on the early monuments, the deceased is shown frontally, in full or three-quarters view, as if posing for a photograph in a studied attitude while focused on the viewer and not on other elements or characters in the field of representation. The image is intelligible to the viewer allowing scope for observation of the details and specific elements which have been chosen as characteristics of the deceased. Most of the monuments of musicians conform to this scheme (see for example fig. 1, 2 and 10)19.
32On early monuments in regions such as Gallia Belgica, where the portrait of the deceased is placed within his/her family while simultaneously engaged in acts which represent his/her own field of work, both subject and family are presented facing the viewer (Rose, 2007). In the ensuing centuries, the interaction between the characters in the scene is emphasized; indeed, scholars often remark on the “joy of narrative” that characterizes this region and time. One example is one monument in Arlon (fig. 11) or the gravestone in Matrica for the centurio P. Afranius Victor from the coh. I Alpinorum20. On sarcophagi and monuments found in Rome and throughout Italy, aspects of family life, and private life, are also rendered thematically.
33During the second half of the second century a transformation of “visual language” takes place, resulting in numerous representations of the funerary banquet.
34When groups of musicians are found in mythological compositions, their instruments correspond to those depicted in real banquet scenes, on gravestones and mosaic floors21.

Fig. 12. Detail of the funerary monument from Dijon, after cleaning with visible remains of painting (photo by the author).
To conclude
35In Rome and throughout Italy, as well as in some of the remoter provinces of the Empire, some funerary monuments bear representations of musical instruments that are of such high quality, sometimes completed with additional details rendered through polychromy (fig. 12)22, that they even contribute valuable details to our interpretation of excavated instruments23. The artistic depiction of music and musicians in reliefs seems to have been used to indicate and often publicly celebrate the status, power and wealth of individuals and families, while the artistic conventions followed were more or less common in Roman and pre-Roman times. Standard forms of representation were used, paradoxically, to customize ancient iconography, in order to show due respect for the traditional requirements of specific ceremonies. Investigations of Roman representations of musical instruments and musicians have established that in funerary contexts they were used by the artist as a kind of tool to draw attention to the wealth and the political or social status of the deceased. For the musicians themselves the category of funerary monuments bearing customized representations and portraits remains – due to the financial aspect – quite rare, most of them affording – if at all – inscriptions.
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Notes de bas de page
1 For example: Fleischhauer, 1964; Homo-Lechner, Vendries dir., 1993; Eichmann, 1994; Fless, 1995; Bélis, 1999; Vendries, 1999; Landels, 2001; Alexandrescu, 2010 (with additional bibliography).
2 Behn, 1912; cf. Vendries, 1999, p. 19-40; Alexandrescu, 2010, p. 20-33; see also Homo-Lechner, 1998.
3 The reliefs of the tomb of the sevir Lusius Storax: Ronke, 1987, cat. no. 2.
4 One eloquent example is provided by the wall painting in the columbarium under the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome: Bendinelli, 1941.
5 Homo-Lechner, Vendries dir., 1993, cat. nr. 83.90.91; Vendries, 1999, p. 296-303; Alexandrescu, 2009; Alexandrescu, 2010, p. 89-97, 111-122, cat. G30-G50, G56-G60, G64, G68.
6 The Portonaccio battle sarcophagus: Alexandrescu, 2010, cat. P36; the Great Ludovisi battle sarcophagus: L. de Lachenal, Museo Nazionale Romano I. 5 (Roma 1983) cat. 25 (with literature); Alexandrescu, 2010, cat. P36.
7 See for a detailed summary for different instruments and circumstances, Wille, 1967, passim.
8 Domić Kunić, Radman-Livaja, 2009; Radman-Livaja ed., 2010, p. 258, cat. nr. 10.
9 The musical instruments used are known from written evidence; for example, from inscriptions and from the description of Catullus 63, 19-23. Example of a funerary relief of a priest of Cybele: Pietrangeli dir., 1951, p. 20-21, cat. no. 29, pl. 2.
10 See for examples Fleischhauer, 1964.
11 Depiction without reference on the instrument in the inscription: Homo-lechner, Vendries dir., 1993, cat. no 40.41. 83.90; Alexandrescu, 2010, cat. G30. Inscription without depiction of musical instrument: CIL, III, 10501, etc.
12 Funerary monuments (mostly gravestones) of musicians that played wind instruments: Alexandrescu, 2010, cat. G30-40.43-49; eventually G41 and 42; probably civilians – cat. G56-59. Grave monuments of musicians that played stringed instruments: Vendries, 1999.
13 The corpus of known examples was dated to around 170 AD and includes a range of scenes showing the four main virtues (virtus, clementia, pietas and concordia) together with a general’s principal achievements in relation to family, gods and community; Reinsbeg, 2006, 19; Muth, 2004. The example in Mantua; Reinsberg, 2006, nr. 33. Also illustrative is one ‚ column sarcophagus’(sarcophagus with columns) in the Villa Albani: Reinsberg, 2006, nr. 123–where the very small igure of a tibia-player or tibicen completes the musical elements of the composition. The composition also includes a scene of sacrifice by the deceased and his wife, as a manifestation of their virtus and pietas.
14 Mosaics in Bardo Museum, Tunis (from a late Roman villa in Carthago; Ben Abed-Ben Khader ed., 2006, p. 24, fig. 11) and on the Aventin (third century, kept in Musei Vaticani; Guidobaldi, 1992, p. 33, ig. 18). Gravestone from Matrica (Százhalombatta-Dunafüred, Hungary; Topál, 1981, p. 98, Nr. 1, ig. 10); funerary monument from Intercisa; Barkóczi et alii, 1954, nr. 103; wall painting in the columbarium in Rome (see note 4).
15 The main person depicted-the deceased on the kline-seems to have been a woman, judging by her visible breasts, and yet she was represented in portraiture as if she were a man; Amedick, 1991, nr. 286, pl. 15; on the stringed instrument see Vendries, 1999, p. 128-130.
16 On the differences and the disputes regarding this aspect, see Delattre, 1998, p. 230-234; Vendries, 1999, p. 327-333.
17 The deceased-a young boy, according to the anthropological analysis of the remains-is depicted as one of the nine Muses or as Apollo: Zanker, Ewald, 2004, p. 39-240.
18 E. g. gravestone of M. Cincius Nigrinus from Selymbria: Pfuhl, Möbius, 1977, nr. 306; Vendries, 2003.
19 See for example Homo-Lechner, Vendries dir., 1993, fig. 10-11, cat. no 90-91; Alexandrescu, 2010, cat. G32, 35, 37-42, 57, 64, 68.
20 see above note 14.
21 E. g. Kranz, 1999, cat. 72, pl. 52/3.
22 On the recently restauration of the monuments in Dijon, see Vernou, Edme, 2015, p. 68-71.
23 For the discussion of a such particular case, see Alexandrescu, 2007b.
Auteur
-
Cristina-Georgeta Alexandrescu
Institutul de Arheologie “Vasile Pârvan”, București.cgetalexandrescu@gmail.com
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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