Table Rim Fragments
4th century
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
a: 6.4 × 28.5 × 12.2 cm (2 1/4 × 11 1/4 × 5 5/8 in.); b: 5.7 × 34.6 × 15.8 cm (2 1/4 × 1 5/8 × 6 1/4 in.); c: 5.3 × 31.1 × 19.6 cm (2 1/8 × 12 1/4 × 7 3/4 in.)
Classification
marble
Department
Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
4702
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Depictions of hunting and wild animals were ubiquitous in the homes of the wealthy during the late Roman and early Byzantine periods. The theme adorned silver plates, textiles, floors, and furnishings such as these marble fragments, which once formed the rim of a table. Here, the artist has represented a range of animals in combat, including a stag, ram, boar, and dog. The meaning of this imagery changed according to context: in the home it would remind viewers of different forms of entertainmen...
About the Artist
Byzantine
"Byzantine" is the collective attribution given to anonymous artists working within the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, whose creations spanned from the 4th to the 15th centuries, primarily in Constantinople and its cultural sphere. These masters produced a vast body of art that defined an era, with museums like the Walters Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago cataloging numerous works un...