Description
This funeral stele depicts a figure guiding a horse with a rider. Above are a standing and a seated figure. The piece is the altar of M. Junius Rufus and bears an inscription. On the right and left ends are masks. The top and back are cut out for the top of a trough. The inside is hollow, and there is a hole in the right end. There are new pieces set in top. The base is modern and has been removed. The front of the bottom is modern as well.
Provenance
First recorded and illustrated by Pirro Ligorio (1512-1583) in S. Stefano [Piscinula] near S. Lucia del Gonfalone/della Chiavica, on the via dei Banchi Vecchi, Rome; Villa Carpegna, Rome, by 1699; Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Inscriptions
[Inscription] Under arch: SI Q] VA TAMEN PIETAS GELIDOS MOVET RVSTICA M [ANES] / RVMPE MORAS [SPES HAEC S]OLA EST MIHI GRATIA [VITAE].; [Inscription] Below the first inscription: M IVNIO M. F. PAL. RVFO / SOTERICHVS. PAEDAGOG. FECIT / HAE SUNT PARVAE TVAE MEAEQ SEDES / HAEC CERTA EST DOMVS HAEC COLENDA NOBIS / HAEC EST QVEM MIHI SVSCITAVI VIVVS. [CIL VI 9752]
