These pieces of furniture have been reassembled from fragments, some of which may come from the imperial villa of Lucius Verus (co-emperor, A.D. 161–169), on the Via Cassia outside Rome. It is not certain that the square glass panels are original to the bed frame and stool, but the carved bone inlays are paralleled on other Roman couches. On the couch legs are friezes of huntsmen, horses, and hounds flanking Ganymede, the handsome Trojan youth who was abducted by Zeus in the guise of an eagle to serve as his wine steward; on the footstool are scenes of winged cupids and leopards; and on the sides of the bed frame, the striking lion protomes have eyes inlaid with glass.
#1207. Couch and footstool with bone carvings and glass inlays
Sagui, Lucia, B. Bacchelli, and R. Pasqualucci. 1996. "Un patrimonie unique au monde. Les verres de la collection Gorga." Annales du 13e Congrès de l'Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre, Pays Bas 28 août-1 septembre 1995, Gioia Meconcelli, ed. pp. 222–3, figs. 8-9, Lochem: Association internationale pour l'histoire du verre.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 446, pp. 380–81, 493, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mattusch, Carol and et al. 2008. Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples p. 37, fig. 3.4, New York: Thames and Hudson.
Campbell, Virginia L. 2017. Ancient Rome. p. 159, New York: Thames and Hudson.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 43, pp. 130–33, New York: Scala Publishers.
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