Ash Chest Lid

Front part of lid of ash chest, gabled, with a rosette and torches in the pediment. This lid was originally on top of the ash chest of the Etrilia Danae 59.148.331a in the Monumenta Matthaeiana but is too wide for this chest. In the Engravings it appeared on the ash chest of C. Minicius Gelasines and may be the lid that Blundell refers to in his Account of 59.18.335a. It fits bettter the ash chest of 59.148.335a and especially the shaping of the underside of the lid corresponds bettter to the ash chest but it still may not have been the original lid for 59.148.335a and was perhaps adapted to fit the ash chest but was then cut into two. The two pieces form a roof shaped lid with bolsters at each side and a pediment at the front. The bolsters have ropes around their waists and flowers in the circular ends at the front but are undecorated. The flowers have six large petals alternating with six small petals with a large central button marked with a cross. At the lower end of the front there is a fascia moulding and above it a moulding decorated with diagonal grooves cut in it giving it the appearance of a twisted rope. A plan fascia outlines the pedimental space with four petalled rosette flanked by torches with burning flames placed with the flames pointing towards the rosette. The underside is shaped to fit the ash chest. Davies concluded (2007) that the lid could be for the ash chest of C. Minicius Gelasinus.