WashU Spotlights on Ancient Splendor: Reliefs

A popular art form in ancient Rome, reliefs are sculptures that feature carved figures protruding from a flat, two-dimensional background. These sculpted scenes were used to tell stories of everyday life, celebrate victories, and adorn tombs. 

As part of a spring 2026 writing-intensive course, Washington University students produced the following descriptions of three reliefs on view through August 16 in Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan.

Relief of a Port Scene 

The emperor Trajan expanded the main port of ancient Rome, Portus, to allow for more ships to be able to dock and more trade to reach Rome. This marble relief from Portus’s main cemetery was situated above a tomb entrance and provides insight on the life of a middle class citizen in Rome. While the Roman elite focused their attention on high government standing, high military rank, and esteemed family history, the middle class found pride in their professions. The ship on the left of the relief can be classified as a merchant ship and may feature barrels carrying cargo goods, likely grain or wine. This suggests that the individual was a merchant or a shipowner who made a living working in the harbor. On the right side of the relief, the young male figure is a personification of the city; the lighthouse is another key marker that tells us where the owner lived and worked. By showcasing this above the tomb entrance, the owner displayed pride and a sense of dignity in their career.  

— Jordi Tjandrasa is a rising senior majoring in economics with a minor in geospatial science. 

Funerary Relief with the Circus Maximus 

The Funerary Relief with the Circus Maximus combines an image of a married couple with a dangerous and exciting chariot race. On the left, a man and woman hold hands in a gesture known as dextrarum iunctio, symbolizing marital fidelity and their reunion after the death of the husband. The remainder of the relief depicts a race in the Circus Maximus, Rome’s largest arena, renovated under Trajan’s rule. This scene likely reflects the deceased man’s profession as a circus official and a victorious moment for the team he owned. Details such as the four-horse chariot, three-pronged turning posts, and dolphin lap counters identify the sporting event, favored by the Roman public. In Roman culture, public games like the chariot races were closely tied to honor, memory, and even funerary traditions. By placing the deceased next to this spectacle, he is associated with one of Rome’s most important entertainment spaces and the powerful individuals who shaped it. Its unique, slanted perspective highlights key symbolic elements and makes it especially interesting to view. This relief not only records an important moment in the deceased’s life but elevates him through it.  

— Isabel Grohne is a rising senior double majoring in art history and archaeology and global studies, with a minor in linguistics. 

Relief from the Tomb of the Haterii   

This relief comes from the Tomb of the Haterii, a family mausoleum built along the Via Labicana outside Rome in the early second century CE. Its owner was likely Quintus Haterius Tychicus, a wealthy freedman known as a redemptor, or public building contractor. The five depicted monuments are construction projects he led under Emperor Domitian (81–94 CE): a gateway associated with Isis and Serapis, the Colosseum, an unknown triumphal arch, the Arch of Titus, and the temple of Jupiter Stator. The relief presents these public monuments as Quintus’s career résumé. As an imperial contractor, he could not officially claim credit for imperial monuments. In his family’s tomb, however, his relatives could celebrate his role. His prominence in Rome’s enormous construction industry also shaped the tomb’s audience: Professional visitors would have recognized the scale of his achievement. The slab itself reveals the depth of those professional ties. Its back preserves traces of an earlier use as marble revetment, perhaps a pilaster molding. This reused marble points to deep ties with the workers, workshops, and materials of Roman building. His tomb was not only about his career. It was made through it.  

— Aaron Held is a master’s student in the Penelope Biggs Department of Classics. 

Writing Intensive Topics: Exhibiting Rome in the Time of Trajan was cotaught by Nathaniel Jones and doctoral candidate Claire Lyman (also a curatorial research intern at SLAM) of the Department of Art History & Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis. Centered around SLAM’s exhibition, the course gave students an opportunity to see what goes into the planning and curation of a large museum exhibition. Each student selected a primary object of study from the show, giving an in-gallery presentation and ultimately producing a longer research paper about the chosen work of art. The short descriptions in this blog series are a distillation of these papers, resulting from close-looking and academic research done over the course of the semester.