Tauroctony from Albacini

TNMM 297 ↔ CIMRM 557

Black marble statue (H. 0.60-0.70 with base; Br. 0.83). At first in the Villa
Montalto-Negroni-Massimi; then at the sculptor Carlo Albacini, nowadays in the Vatican Musea, Sala dei Animali, No. 94.

Mithras in the usual attitude and attire as a bullkiller. The dog licks the blood from the wound; the serpent crawls over the ground; the scorpion is not clearly visible. Behind this group the dressed upper part of a woman’s body emerges from a rock. If we leave aside the false restoration of the head, then we must picture to ourselves the statue as framed by a rocky border and by the side of it the busts of Sol (l) and Luna (r). The statue has been restored several times e.o.: the head and a part of Mithras’ cloak, the upper part of his body; the bull’s head, neck and l. foreleg; the dog, except its head and the foremost part of its l. foreleg. The serpent’s head is broken off.