3-053-549 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Castellani Collection in the British Museum - Etruscan sarcophagus, 1873. 'The recent purchase of the Castellani collection of art-antiquities by the trustees of the British Museum has added to the public property of this kind some things of considerable value for their beauty or curiosity...[A] sarcophagus, belonging to the class of terra-cottas, is one of the articles which must be regarded as more curious than beautiful. It exhibits a group of two figures, those of a man and woman; the former recumbent on a couch, the latter sharing a feast with him. This is a specimen of Etruscan art'. The Penelli Sarcophagus was claimed to have been excavated in Caere but is now regarded as a forgery. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.