Description
Book SynopsisIn ancient Greece, funerary monuments were visual expressions of mourning that provided the opportunity for the living to commemorate and communicate with the dead. Today they offer a wealth of information about the deceased and the communities of which they were a part, for example, their status, material aspects of their lives, and how they wanted to be depicted.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the finest collections of Greek funerary monuments outside of Greece. This richly illustrated volume, by renowned author Paul Zanker, presents more than 50 outstanding examples, created from the 7th to the 2nd century B.C., that represent a variety of media and geographical regions. Through their shared focus on memorialising the dead, these extraordinary works of art offer insights into all facets of life in ancient Greece.
Table of ContentsDirector’s Foreword 7 Acknowledgments 9 Map 10 INTRODUCTION 13 I. THE ARCHAIC PERIOD 15 Funerary Ritual in the Visual Record • Funerary Monuments of the Archaic Period II. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 47 White-Ground Lekythoi • Private Funerary Monuments • Funerary Monuments of the Classical Period • Three Akroteria from Inscribed Grave Stelai III. THE HELLENISTIC PEERIOD 117 Taranto • Sculptures and Fragments from Free-Standing Tarentine Funerary Monuments • Vases from Canosan Tombs in Daunia • Funerary Vases from Centuripe, Sicily • Lucanian Warrior Graves • Grave Stelai and Funerary Vases from Alexandria • Painted Grave Stelai from Alexandria • Hadra Vases from Alexandria • Hellenistic Funerary Stele from Asia Minor CONCLUSION 177 Bibliography 182 Concordance 186 Index of Names Inscribed on Works 186 Index 187 Credits and Copyright 192
