South Italian Sculpture: Relief Fragment with Warrior

Inv. No.: 87.201
Provenance: Taras, South Italy
Date: late 4th-early 3rd century BC
Length: 175mm
 
Cottier-Angeli gift.

A fragment of a limestone frieze with a relief carving of a naked fallen warrior. He is shown with a frontal body, leaning to the right and kneeling on his left knee with his right leg stretched out to the side. The left leg is foreshortened. In his right hand he holds a sword while attached to his left arm is a circular shield. A ledge forms a frame for the lower edge of the scene. The right thigh is extensively damaged as is the left side of the warrior head. His left hand and the left edge of the shield are missing. Battle scenes were a popular subject for this sort of frieze. It probably comes from a small funerary building. The limestone is white with no traces of painted decoration.

Function:
A fragment of a limestone relief carving used to decorate a sepulchral building.

Manufacture:
Carved from limestone.

Bibliography:
Bernarbò Brera, L., "I Rilievi Tarantini in Pietra Tenera", Rivista dellstituto Nazionale drcheologia e Storia dellrte, N.S. 1 (1952), 5-241.

Carter, J. C., "The Sculpture of Taras", Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, NS 65, Part 7 (1975), 7-38.

Rolley, C., "Sculpture in Magna Graecia", The Western Greeks, ed. G. P. Carratelli, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1996, 397-398.

Comparanda:
Bernarbò Brera, L., "I Rilievi Tarantini in Pietra Tenera", Rivista dellstituto Nazionale drcheologia e Storia dellrte, N.S. 1 (1952), Figs. 45, 53, 54, 91, 92.

Langlotz, E., The Art of Magna Graecia: Greek Art in Southern Italy and Sicily, London, Thames and Hudson, 1965, Plates 137, below (Tarentine mid-4^th century frieze of Heracles fighting Amazons) and 153 (Tarentine late 2^nd century BC relief with two warriors).