Relief from a Grave Monument in the Princeton University Art Museum, August 2009

Grave monument with man and boy
2nd century B.C.

Greek

Hellenistic period

Marble

h. 66.6 cm., w. 35.5 cm. (26 1/4 x 14 in.)

Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund and Carl Otto von Kienbusch Jr. Memorial Collection Fund

Object Number: 2007-65


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

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Relief from a Grave Monument
East Greek, Ionia, Turkey, Hellenistic, 2nd century BC
Formerly at Rokeby Hall, Yorkshire
Marble

# 2007-65

This relief is typical of a class of Hellenistic funerary monuments from the Ionian region of western Asia Minor. The deceased, an elderly man, stands in a dignified posture, his right arm resting in a fold of his himation, his cloaked left hand drawing up the folds over his leg. His rugged features are softened by a pensive frown and the sagging flesh beneath his hooded eyes. The tubular fillet on his head may indicate that he was a priest, but its meaning is uncertain. The engaged column at the right was one of two that originally supported a now missing entablature, on which the man's name was inscribed. The grieving slave boy was once joined by a second boy at the left. The part in the boy's hair is marked by a thick braid. He cocks his head and looks down pensively, perhaps in grief, though he seems more puzzled than dismayed by his master's departure.

Text from the Princeton University Art Museum label.