Tauroctony on display in Boston

TNMM 539 ↔ CIMRM 607

White marble relief, the top and r. sides broken off (H. 0.65 Br. 0.84). Anonymously presented to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. No. 92.2692.

Mithras in Eastern attire and elegant foot-wear, sits astride on the bull, grasping its lower jaw with one hand and thrusting the dagger into its body with the other. Mithras’ head got lost. The serpent creeps over the ground; the scorpion is not represented; the raven is not visible. Of the dog the collar only has been preserved. No traces of painting.

This relief shows an important scene from the life of Mithras, a god of Iranian origin whose cult had established itself in the Roman world by the second century A.D. The slaying of the bull terminated the god’s heroic labors and served as the central image in the cults sanctuaries (known as mithraea). Mithras is shown here plunging a short sword into the bull’s throat. He wears oriental costume, a belted tunic with overfold, tight sleeves, trousers, boots, and a short cloak fastened by a large round brooch.

The relief is broken away irregularly through the neck and cloak of Mithras, and on the right side by his right hand and including the bull’s forefeet and the body of the dog. Both the raised right hand and the knife or short sword in the bull’s throat are well preserved. A badly damaged, small strip of the molding survives on the right. The remaining surfaces are in superlative condition, with some root marks and a light yellow patina usually characteristic of Pentelic marble. Details such as the chasing or brocading on Mithras’s footgear are as fresh as the day they were carved.

PROVENANCE
By date unknown: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Sculpture in Stone: from Rome; said to have been found near the Ponte Palatino, in the river bed or bank); gift of Edward Perry Warren to MFA, September 1892

Comments

Pattie Lawler

As of 2022 this piece is currently NOT on display.