Paris Summary

One thing I noticed right away was the state of these five sarcophagi. They are all in excellent condition. Although they date to the same time period as the Sarcophagi in Campo-Santo, they are for the most part bigger, with more detail, and better preserved. Perhaps they belonged to people of a higher class, because they are much more detailed, or perhaps they have just been taken care of much more over the years. Sarcophagi 1, 3, and 4 each have the Dionysian theatre masks on the top. 2 and 5 are missing there tops but perhaps they also contained the theatre masks. These masks were not as common but still present in Campo Santo. Griffons were present on the first sarcophagus. Sarcophagi 2, 3, and 5 contain many centaurs. Although there is a strong difference in how they are portrayed. In Sarcophagus #2 Dionysus is not present, however the figures associated with him are. In this sarcophagus the centaurs take on a wild nature to demonstrate the wild beings associated with Dionysus. The idea of what they stand for seems the most important. However, Sarcophagus 3 has a mother centaur with her babies. This scene is in the middle of the sarcophagus. Although the sarcophagus is titled, Sarcophagus with the myth of Dionysus and Ariadne, the depiction of the couple is on the far right side of the frieze and the family of centaurs is in the middle. In contrast to Sarcophagus #2, the centaur has a more fertile appearance and does not appear to be known solely as a wild associate to Dionysus. In the 5th sarcophagus, the Centaurs are shown as subservient to Dionysus. They do a the work, in the sense that they pull the cart with Ariadne, the cart with Dionysus, and they hold the image in the middle, of a woman with her son, most likely the patrons of this sarcophagus. Unless there is an image of the deceased in the middle of the sarcophagus (numbers 2 and 5) it is hard to concentrate on one solid image. The sarcophagi are filled with two dimensional images, usually relating to a myth but hard to understand because there are so many images surrounding that story. For example, in numbers 3, and 5, there are three stories going on, one at the right, one at the left, and one in the middle, however these scenes are surrounded by figures, such as women, animals, or centaurs, making it hard to distinguish what story was the most important to the patron. In contrast to the Sarcophagi at Campo Santo, the main idea was fairly obvious.