Grave Stele
- 103
Ancient Greek cemeteries were filled with as much art as any modern museum. Some of the best artists in Greece carved tombstones and grave markers. The monuments could be large, costly affairs. In fact, legislation was passed from time to time to limit the size of these monuments. Numerous large grave steles such as the one on your left were made in fourth-century b.c.e. Athens and its environs to celebrate the deceased. Members of the upper class and perhaps even those who were slightly less wealthy commissioned them.
It is sometimes difficult to identify who is portrayed on these steles. On this relief the inscriptions along the upper part of the stele and the age of the figures are helpful. Probably the man and woman in the front were siblings. The older man between them may be their father. The figure in the upper right hand corner in very low relief may be the siblings’ uncle or grandfather. The prominent position and large size of the seated woman in front may indicate that she is the deceased.
Found at Halai, Attica, Greece;
With Theodore Zomboulaki, Athens, by 1930-1931;
Purchased from Zomboulaki, through John Smirlis and Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.
Paolo Arias, “Einige Bedeutsame Antiken in Amerika,” Pantheon 12 (July-December 1933): 367.
“The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Special Number,” The Art News 32, no. 10 (December 9, 1933): 56.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 118.
Inscriptiones Graecae, pt. 3, vol. 2 (Berlin: 1940), 879, no. 5511A.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 18.
The William Rockhill Nelson Collection Housed in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts (Kansas City, MO.: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 19.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 26.
Brian Cook, “An Attic Grave Stele in New York,” Antike Plastik 9 (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1969), 70.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 36.
Cornelius Vermeule, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), 121.
Christoph Clairmont, Classical Attic Tombstones, vol. 4; Plate volume (Kilchberg: Akanthus, 1993), 4:82-83, no. 4.384 (v.); plate 4.384.
Johannes Bergemann, Demos und Thanatos: Untersuchungen zum Wertsystem der Polis im Spiegel der attischen Grabreliefs des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. und zur Funktion der gleichzeitigen Grabbauten (Munich: Biering and Brinkmann, 1997), 169-70, no. 470.
