Relief with Ploughman

This marble panel depicts a youthful ploughman carved in high relief driving two oxen across a field. He has short cropped hair and wears a short tunic secured by a broad belt. He steers the handle of the plough with his left hand, and probably prodded the oxen with a goad held in his extended right. Such agricultural scenes were common on votive reliefs dedicated to pastoral gods like Ceres and Silvanus in order to guarantee a successful harvest. They also appear in cycles depicting the primary occupations of the months. In the latter context, the motif celebrates the virtues of physical work and the importance of farming both to the Roman economy and to the Roman people, who maintained an image of themselves as rustic laborers despite the luxuries of empire. This relief is fitted with an iron pin at the top, suggesting that it was fixed to a wall or screen.