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The lower left-hand section of a Greek sepulchral or votive relief
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The lower left-hand section of a Greek sepulchral or votive relief
3rd century BC
Greek island marble
Height: 30cm, maximum
Width: 36cm
Depth: 15cm
Width: 36cm
Depth: 15cm
Museum number: M1150
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 298
On display: Colonnade - central aisle
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
At the extreme left is the lower part of a pilaster, its anta resting on a thick base ground. A nude boy (much mutilated) is leaning right against the pilaster, right hand on hip. To the right, at the break, remain the abdomen and lower limbs of a large, himation-clad female figure, seated toward the left on a draped throne with carved leg, against which a chitoned female attendant, on the same smaller scale as the boy, leans left, with her arms (mutilated) on the cushions.
Good East Greek work of the third Century BC, constituting the left half of a large funerary banquet relief, or possibly one depicting the heroized deceased person. The right-hand portion would be restored with the deceased husband(?) feasting and a servant, a horse (etc.) beyond1.
1 Compare with the example in the Louvre from Cyzicus, see S. Reinach, Répertoire de Reliefs Grecs et Romains, 3 vols, Paris, 1909-12, II, p. 292, no. 2; also see Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, V, 1902, p. 191.
Good East Greek work of the third Century BC, constituting the left half of a large funerary banquet relief, or possibly one depicting the heroized deceased person. The right-hand portion would be restored with the deceased husband(?) feasting and a servant, a horse (etc.) beyond1.
1 Compare with the example in the Louvre from Cyzicus, see S. Reinach, Répertoire de Reliefs Grecs et Romains, 3 vols, Paris, 1909-12, II, p. 292, no. 2; also see Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, V, 1902, p. 191.
Provenance
Acquired by Soane from the collection of the neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman.
Literature
A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, trans. C.A.M. Fennell, Cambridge, 1882, p.477, no. 21.
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