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Limestone funerary relief

ca. 325–300 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 162
Tarentum (modern Taranto) was a wealthy Greek colony on the southeast coast of Italy, a pivotal location along the trade routes between Greece and Italy. During the fourth century B.C., ostentatious grave monuments in the form of small temple-like buildings decorated with painted sculpture filled the city cemetery. This relief must come from such a building. It represents a young warrior and a woman standing by an altar. Between them is a vase for pouring a libation on the altar. On the wall behind them hang a cuirass, a helmet, and a sword, presumably the arms of the dead warrior for whom they mourn. It has been suggested that the relief illustrates a scene from Greek tragedy.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Limestone funerary relief
  • Period: Hellenistic
  • Date: ca. 325–300 BCE
  • Culture: Greek, South Italian, Tarentine
  • Medium: Limestone
  • Dimensions: H. 23 1/16 in. (58.5 cm); width as preserved 21 1/8 in. (53.6 cm)
  • Classification: Stone Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.54
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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Lion felling a bull, from a marble pediment
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Fragment of the marble stele (grave marker) of a hoplite (foot soldier), Marble, Hymettian, Greek, Attic
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