Funerary stele of young mother



Funerary stele of young mother

Γ471
Stone (Fine white marble)
Almost intact. Broken on lower right corner and part of girl's left arm.
Height: 84 cm. Width: 50-52.5 cm. Thickness: 6-9.5 cm.
Pigaidakia/Lasaia
Karavovrysi
Classical period:
400-375 BC:
Gallery:
XIX
Case:
Not in case
Exhibition thematic unit:
Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th-4th c. BC). The Cemeteries
Description
Ogival funerary stele with relief pediment and undecorated acroteria above a cymatium (wavy moulding). On the main surface is a female figure facing right, seated on a distinctive klismos chair with high vertical legs and low backrest, her feet resting on an elaborate footstool. She is wearing a sleeved chiton (tunic) and a himation (mantle) partly covering the head. In front of her is a disproportionately small girl in a short tunic, standing on tiptoe and extending both arms towards the seated figure. The obvious significance of the scene, with the dead mother, distanced from the world of the living, unable to respond to her little daughter’s pleading gesture, draws on Attic iconographic models of the 5th century BC, transposed relatively successfully by a local artist. Along the bottom of the stele is a rough projecting band for setting it into a stone base.
Bibliography:
I. Pini, "Eine klassische Grabstele aus Kreta", Marburger Winckelmann-Programm 1968, 39-40. R. M. Anzalone, Lasaia epineion di Gortina, Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene 2012, 225-231, esp. 226. tav, II,3. Ι. Romeo, "Una nuova testa di Apollo da Gortina: considerazioni sulla scultura votiva di eta classica a Creta", Quaderni Ticinesi 23 (1994), 99-110, esp. 104, n. 4. For Atticising stelae in Crete see M.W. Baldwin-Bowsky, "An Atticizing Stele from Western Crete", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 118 (1997), 197-206, esp. 199-201.
Author:
K. S.


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