Can art have a good or a bad side? We mean literally. Swipe to see the front and back sides of this marble sarcophagus. On the front, a ritual procession floods the composition—satyrs, maenads, and panthers accompany Dionysos, the god of wine, as he approaches the sleeping figure of Ariadne. On the back, a train of maenads interrupts a group stomping on grapes in a vat, the necessary labor required to have such a party. For Roman sculpture, areas that are uncarved or unpolished are clues to us today about how a piece was originally intended to be viewed or displayed. The carving on the back is much more shallow and has a simplified design. What does this tell us about the ideal viewing angle? Picture this: the sarcophagus was placed into a semi-circular niche in the Tomb of Sempronii in Rome, where the front and possibly the sides would have been seen by decades of family mourners. Today it sits up against a wall at the Getty Villa, suggesting how it might have been seen in antiq...