Museo de Cádiz
There’s something touching about the pair of Phoenician sarcophagi in the archaeological collection of this excellent museum. The man’s carved marble coffin was discovered near Cádiz in 1887, and when the woman’s sarcophagus was excavated nearby in 1980, they appeared reunited. But all is not quite as it seems. The bearded man looks older, but the fresh-faced Lady of Cádiz was created some 70 years before the man’s sarcophagus, around 480 b.c., and recent research revealed that the body buried in the female sarcophagus was actually a man.
The museum has a startling collection of artifacts from the Phoenician and Tartessian periods. The design and construction of the jewelry and tableware appears modern—it is astonishing to note it was made some 2,500 years ago. The Roman room includes a huge statue of Emperor Trajan excavated at nearby Bolonia in 1980—look at the difference in quality between his noble head, carved in Rome, and his togaed torso, probably knocked out locally.
The fine arts collection on the upper floors includes a lovely set of pictures of the saints by Zurbarán, and the last painting by Murillo, an altarpiece for the Capuchin convent in Cádiz, on which he was working when he fell and later died in 1682. His student completed the job.
There’s something touching about the pair of Phoenician sarcophagi in the archaeological collection of this excellent museum. The man’s carved marble coffin was discovered near Cádiz in 1887, and when the woman’s sarcophagus was excavated nearby in 1980, they appeared reunited. But all is not quite as it seems. The bearded man looks older, but the fresh-faced Lady of Cádiz was created some 70 years before the man’s sarcophagus, around 480 b.c., and recent research revealed that the body buried in the female sarcophagus was actually a man.
The museum has a startling collection of artifacts from the Phoenician and Tartessian periods. The design and construction of the jewelry and tableware appears modern—it is astonishing to note it was made some 2,500 years ago. The Roman room includes a huge statue of Emperor Trajan excavated at nearby Bolonia in 1980—look at the difference in quality between his noble head, carved in Rome, and his togaed torso, probably knocked out locally.
The fine arts collection on the upper floors includes a lovely set of pictures of the saints by Zurbarán, and the last painting by Murillo, an altarpiece for the Capuchin convent in Cádiz, on which he was working when he fell and later died in 1682. His student completed the job.
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