FUNERARY STELE OF A YOUTH, 410-390 BCE. GROTTAFERRATA, MUSEO DELL'ABBAZIA, ON LOAN TO THE CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS Here we have a refined and mostly intact example of late C5 BCE Attic funerary sculpture. Once it would have been bright with colour, but no trace of the original paint remains, so we can see the Parian marble that so impassioned C18-C19 neoclassicists. The stele is rectangular, stepping back twice so it's thickest at the bottom. At top is some symmetrical palmette decoration. The stela shows a youth seated facing right, his face in profile. He has short curly hair and round cheeks, and in age is surely no older than 20. His bare shoulder and chest are broad and strong, and his chiton covers his far shoulder and his body from the waist to the ankles. He's holding an open scroll and is reading happily as his faithful dog lies in the shade beneath his chair. His legs are crossed at the ankles, a graceful touch. How this got to Grottaferrata is anyone's guess.
For #ReliefWednesday we're at a show in the #CapitolineMuseums in #Rome to find a #Greek, probably #Athenian funerary stele from c. 400 BCE with a beautiful crisp #relief of a young man, the deceased, reading a scroll, his loyal #dog under his chair. #AncientBluesky 🏺
