Attic Sculpture: Fragment of a Funerary Loutrophoros
Inv. No.: 86.097
Provenance: Attica
Date: early 4th century BC
Height: 670mm
Diameter: 370mm
Gift of the Alumni Association, from a donation by Mrs Betty Fletcher.
A large, roughly oval fragment from the body of a marble funerary loutrophoros. At the top is a small segment of the neck of the vase. The body is decorated with a mourning scene, carved in relief. A bearded man, seated on a high-backed chair, shakes hands with a young man who stands before him. The handshake or dexiosis is a gesture of farewell, commonly found in mourning scenes. A young child stands behind the young man and a mourning woman stands beside the seated man. The deceased in this family group is probably the young man since loutrophoroi, vases associated with marriage ritual, were often used to mark the graves of young, unmarried people. There is an inscription at the top left of the scene that refers to the tomb of Phanodemos, son of Paramonos. The Pentelic marble has weathered to a golden colour on the surface; it is white underneath as various scratches and chips reveal.
Function:
Around the end of the 5th century BC, large marble lekythoi or loutrophoroi with mourning scenes carved in relief on them were used as grave markers in Athens. The marble loutrophoros was particularly associated with young people who died before marriage.
Manufacture:
Both the loutrophoros shape and the low-relief scene on it have been carved from Pentelic marble.
Decoration:
- At left is a bearded man, seated on a high-backed chair and draped in a himation, facing right. He shakes hands with a standing young man who faces him. The young man body is also draped with a himation. Between and behind the two adult male figures is a standing, draped woman, facing right, who cups her head in a conventional gesture of mourning. A child wearing a short tunic stands to the right of the standing man, looking left. All figures are shown with three-quarter bodies and profile heads.
- There is an inscription above the seated man head, to the left of the woman head. It refers to Phanodemos, the son of Paramonos.
Bibliography:
Boardman, J., Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period, a Handbook, London, Thames and Hudson, 1985, 183-185.
Clairmont, C. W., Gravestone and Epigram: Greek Memorials from the Archaic and Classical Period, Mainz, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1970.
Friis Johansen, K., The Attic Grave-Reliefs of the Classical Period: An Essay in Interpretation, Copenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard, 1951.
Kurtz, D. C. and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs, London, Thames and Hudson, 1971 (especially 127-129).
Shapiro, H. A., "The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art", American Journal of Archaeology, 95 (1991), 629-656. (19 May 1986), No. 187.
Sotheby Catalogue
Comparanda:
Bieber, M., The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, revised edition, New York, Columbia University Press, 1961, Figs. 1 and 2.
Clairmont, C. W., Gravestone and Epigram: Greek Memorials from the Archaic and Classical Period, Mainz, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1970, Plate 27, 59 (mid 4th century marble lekythos).
Comstock, M. B. and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1976, Nos. 73-75 (4th century marble Attic lekythoi).
Kurtz, D. C. and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs, London, Thames and Hudson, 1971, Fig. 28 (marble lekythos and base).