Funerary altar for Publias Novius Thiasus

Roman, circa end of 1st – beginning of the 2nd century AD
Marble
H.: 121 cm. - W.: 72 cm. - D.: 64 cm.

Provenance:

Discovered in May 1861 on the Appian Way at Albanum (present-day Albano Laziale).
Formerly in the collection of Thomas Shields Clarke (1860-1920), American painter and sculptor, at Fernbrook estate, Lenox, Massachusetts, acquired at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century; the altar remained in-situ at Fernbrook until the 1970s, when the property was purchased by Avalon Schools.
With the Bradford Auction Gallery, Sheffield, Massachusetts.
Private collection of Lee Elman (1936-2022), acquired from the former at an auction towards the middle of the 1970s and installed in Aston Magna, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Then passed down by descent.
Then in an American private collection until 2023, acquired from the former.

Publications:

«Archeologia», La Civiltà Cattolica, twelfth year, Vol. XI, Ser. IV, 1861, p. 732.H. Dessau, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Vol. XIV, Berlin, 1887, p. 228, no. 2360.
L. Shelton, Beautiful Gardens in America, New York, 1915, pl. 24.