Description
The stele, made of trachyte and datable to the 1st century A.D., was originally placed in front of the main door of the basilica of Santa Giustina and later became part of the private collection of Maggi da Bassano (16th century) before being donated to the Museum at the end of the 19th century. It has a rectangular shape with a hollow-bottomed niche at the top to contain the busts of the two deceased: Gaius Sempronius, the dedicator, is represented on the right, while his wife Clodia Seconda is on the left, according to Greek custom.
The characters are rendered in a rather rough manner, with the torso identical for both, but in the faces one can detect a certain expressiveness in the large eyes and, in the case of Gaius, in the large, protruding forehead, although there is no attention to individual physiognomic features, with the exaggeration of protruding ears, for example. Clodia's hairstyle is peculiar: her head is almost a smooth cap, divided in the middle into two locks that join with a ribbon at the nape of the neck and then fall to either side of her shoulders.
The largest portion of the stele is occupied by the 12 lines of the inscription, which recalls how Gaio Sempronio Primo ordered this monument when he was alive ("vivos fecit") for himself, his wife and his brother Quinto Sempronio Terzo ("sibi et uxori" ... "et frati suo"), then indicating the space occupied by the family tomb (36 feet at the front and 26 at the back). The message ends with a threat against those who would dare to desecrate the tombs, a unique element among the stelae of Padua, which, however, has a different style from the other parts of the inscription, more irregular, and would therefore have been added later.
