Relief of an African Elephant in the Getty Villa, July 2008

Relief of an African Elephant
Roman, 79-96 AD
Marble

Inventory # 71.AA.463.1

Wearing a tasseled blanket, this noble elephant strides forward with its trunk raised. The sculptor used lightly incised, crosshatched lines to convey the wrinkled roughness of the animal's hide. This relief and the one on the opposite wall probably faced one another on the facade of a building.

Romans first encountered elephants in combat at the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC, when Rome was beginning to expand its empire into southern Italy. In this battle, elephants were used by Greek forces under Pyrrhus, ruler of Epiros in western Greece.

Text from the Getty Villa museum label.