This fragmentary grave marker features a nude youth in profile and a decorative palmette that were painted on the flat surface of the stone, rather than incised or carved in relief. The figure appears against a dark background with details of the body outlined in a lighter color, creating an effect comparable to red-figure vase painting. Alternating colors emphasize the petals of the palmette. An inscription on the base identifies the deceased as Antigenes and the person who erected the monument as Panaisches. A painted stele was a less expensive alternative to a grave marker with both sculptural and painted decoration.
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This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Enhanced ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence images of capital (left) and shaft (right)
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Enhanced ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence images of capital (left) and shaft (right)
Artwork Details
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Title:Marble grave stele of Antigenes
Period:Archaic
Date:end of the 6th century BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Marble, Hymettian (base)
Dimensions:Other (height reconstructed): 88 1/2 x 25 x 20 in. (224.8 x 63.5 x 50.8 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1915
Accession Number:15.167
Inscription: On the base with the name of Antigenes
From Attica
Until 1915, collection of Edward Perry Warren, Lewes House, Lewes, West Sussex, UK; acquired in 1915, purchased from E.P. Warren.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1916. "Department of Classical Art Accessions of 1915." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 11(6): pp. 124–25, fig. 1.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. p. 133, fig. 44, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 50, 195, pl. 35e, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 20, pp. 16–17, pl. 22a, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1961. The Archaic Gravestones of Attica. no. 61, pp. 44–45, figs. 147, 188, 210, London: Phaidon Press.
Reuterswärd, Patrik. 1980. Studien zur Polychromie der Plastik. p. 48, n. 86, Stockholm: Bokförlaget Svenska.
Bodel, John P. and Stephen Tracy. 1997. Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA : A Checklist. p. 183, Rome: American Academy in Rome.
Cook, Brian. 1998[1987]. Greek Inscriptions. p. 39, fig. 30, London: Trustees of the British Museum.
Keesling, Catherine M. 1999. "Endoios's Painting from the Themistoklean Wall: A Reconstruction." Hesperia, 68(4): p. 522 n. 51.
Lazzarini, Lorenzo and Dr. Clemente Marconi. 2014. "A New Analysis of Major Greek Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum: Petrological and Stylistic." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 49: pp. 127–28, fig. 29.
Zanker, Paul. 2022. Afterlives : Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 8, pp. 42–43, New York: Scala Publishers.
Williams, Dyfri, Kenneth Lapatin, Nicholaus Dietrich, Judith M. Barringer, Francois Lissarrague, and Edinburgh University Press. 2022. Images at the Crossroads : Media and Meaning in Greek Art, Judith M. Barringer and Francois Lissarrague, eds. pp. 311, 312, 315, 317, fig. 14.2, Edinburgh.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
