Ash Chest

Rectangular ash chest of M. Ulpius Eutyches, made up of the small Roman ash chest, a base and a lid, the latter two restorations of the 18th century, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The chest may have been originally only decorated at the front. The lid and the base are wider than the chest and were probably made in the 18th century to enhance what may have looked as a rather simple ash chest. The base has decorative mouldings on the front and its sides while the back of it is plain. The base stands on small rectangular feet There are three clamp holes on both sides of the chest and its back. They are small and oval and lower than those on other ash chests. The back hole is filled with metal and the sides with plaster. The inner cavity has rounded corners and is roughly worked inside. The inscription on the front of the chest is: D M MVLPIO.EVTYCHE TI M.VLPLIVS PHILOCALVS FRATRI.B..M.F To the Shades:to Marcus Ulpius Eutyches.Marcus Ulpius/Philocalus (or Philocaius) made (this) for his well deserving brother. The letters are large for the space and the inscription looks rather squashed. The letters are well formed but simple with no elaborate flourishes. The horizontal bars of some of the letters are rather short, for example in the eighth letter of Philocalus, in the fourth line and it not therefore if it is an L and not an I. The final TI of EVTYCHETI in the second line is carved on the frame and it is difficult to see or to know whether the T is there and whether the word may just be EVTYCHEI. Davies (2007) was unsure if the the inscription was ancient or not but if it was, then it belonged to a freedman of Emperor Trajan and decicated to the man by his brother. The decoration in the front corners is of wingless cupids (putti, amorini) supporting a garland of fruit and flowers on their shoulders. They have their feet widely spaced and their body is braced against the weight of the garland. The arm on the corner is raised over the head and the forearm is on the side of the cupid's chest. Their heads turn away from the centre. The garland hangs below the inscription and the ribbons fill up the empty spaces between the heads of the cupids and the inscription panels and between their legs. From the end of the 1st century AD cupids began to be used for decorating sarcophagi and were extremely popular in the 2nd century AD. The frame of the inscription has a decorative leaf and dart moulding with an acantus leaf at the corners. This part of the decoration may have been carved in modern times. The mouldings at the top and bottom of the chest are plan fasciae. On the sides of the ash chest there is decoration of an elaborate plant motif consisting of a kalyx, from which a palmette and four tendrils rise: the tendrils are symmetrically arranged in a formal pattern and in four petalled rosettes. The feet of the base have three rosettes on each of the external faces on the front and the sides. There is also a series of mouldings on the front and side faces. From top to bottom: a fascia decorated with a running dog motif; an astragal with bead decoration; a cyma reversa decorated with a leaf pattern; a broad area of vertical fluting.