Grave Stele of Mnesikles in the Princeton University Art Museum, August 2009

Grave stele of Mnesikles
ca. 400–350 B.C.

Greek, Attic

Pentelic marble

h. 66.5 cm., w. 27.5 cm., d. 6.3 cm. (26 3/16 x 10 13/16 x 2 1/2 in.)

Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund

Object Number: y1986-67

Text from: artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/ancient/search/

The boy Mnesikles, his name inscribed above his head, is carved in low relief on a stele, a flat slab of marble used for both gravestones and votive reliefs throughout the Greek world. Probably three to five years old, he is represented naked, his cloak tossed over his left shoulder. His hair is bound with a fillet, and he wears shoes or sandals, the tops of which were originally painted. In his right hand is a toy: a wheeled stick. Similar depictions of young children, some holding identical toys, were painted on miniature clay jugs and deposited in graves, possibly in reference to initiation rites for young children at the Anthesteria, a festival of the wine god Dionysos.

Text from the Princeton University Art Museum label.