Because the framing niche that once surrounded this relief is missing, there are no inscriptions that might identify the deceased. Both the seated man and the veiled woman behind him stare straight ahead, as if the young woman who gazes down at them were invisible. Do they mourn their dead daughter? Does she mourn her dead father, or is she the sole survivor of the group? Despite its ambiguity and solemn sadness, the relief conveys an intense, though restrained, sense of family unity. Carved by a master, this grave stele is one of the most magnificent examples that have survived from the classical period.
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Title:Marble grave stele with a family group
Period:Late Classical
Date:ca. 360 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Marble, Pentelic
Dimensions:H. 67 3/8 in. (171.1 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1911
Object Number:11.100.2
Said to have been found in Attica (Richter 1954, p. 57, no. 83).
[Until 1911, with G. Yanacopoulos, Paris]; acquired in 1911, purchased from G. Yanacopoulos.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1911. "Department of Classical Art: Recent Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6(11): p. 211.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 219, fig. 133, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Chase, George H. 1924. Greek and Roman Sculpture in American Collections. pp. 102–3, fig. 123, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1926. Ancient Furniture: A History of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Furniture. p. 32, fig. 87, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 256–58, fig. 180, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 256–58, fig. 180, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th ed. pp. 131, 133, fig. 159, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 6th ed. pp. 131, 133, fig. 159, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 133, 493, fig. 428, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 140, 281, pl. 121c, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 83, pp. 56–57, pls. 67, 68a-d, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. p. 379, pl. 124b, Cambridge, England.
Reuterswärd, Patrik. 1980. Studien zur Polychromie der Plastik. p. 53, n.108, Stockholm: Bokförlaget Svenska.
Clairmont, Christoph W. 1993. Classical Attic Tombstones, Vol. 3. no. 3846, Kilchberg: Akanthus.
Touchette, Lori-Ann. 1995. The Dancing Maenad Reliefs: Continuity and Change in Roman Copies, Bulletin Supplement, Vol. 62. p. 29, n. 179, London: Institute Of Classical Studies.
Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. 1997. Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture. p. 162, fig. 35, Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press.
Stewart, Andrew F. 1997. Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece. p. 46, fig. 29, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Leader, Ruth E. 1997. "In Death Not Divided: Gender, Family, and State on Classical Athenian Grave Stelae." American Journal of Archaeology, 101(4): p. 696 n. 71.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. p. 100, pls. 38–41, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bol, Peter C. 2004. Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst, Vol. 2. pp. 265, 268 ff, 276, 285, 298, pls. 203, 205, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Geominy, Wilfred. 2004. "Die Zeit von 390 bis 360 v. Chr.." Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst, Vol. 2, Peter C. Bol, ed. pp. 265, 268ff., 276, 285, 298, figs. 203, 205, a, b, Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 159, pp. 141, 435, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 5, fig. 6, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Childs, William A.P. 2018. Greek Art & Aesthetics in the Fourth Century B.C.. p. 280, fig. 276, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. pp. 174, 268, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 25, pp. 34, 113–14, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul. 2022. Afterlives : Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 18, pp. 74–75, New York: Scala Publishers.
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