This grave relief is a fine example of the kind of frieze used for grave monuments in the wealthy Greek colony of Taras in southeastern Italy, a critical location along the trade routes between Greece and Italy. During the fourth century B.C., ostentatious grave monuments in the form of small templelike buildings decorated with painted sculpture filled the city cemetery. This relief most likely comes from such a building. Its porous, now rather grainy limestone is of local origin and creates a very different impression from the hard, smooth Greek marbles. Compared with contemporary Athenian grave reliefs, the Tarantine work is remarkable for its implied narrative and for the paraphernalia depicted. The scene can be recognized as funerary from the mournful attitude of the figures. A young warrior and a woman stand before an altar and between them is a vase for pouring a libation. On the wall behind them hang a cuirass, helmet, and sword, presumably the armor of the dead warrior for whom they mourn.

Open full-size image