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A marble relief forms a triangular pediment above two columns. At center are a woman, a child, and a man holding up a theater mask.

A rectangular marble stele forms a pediment with pointed top, with a theater mask at its center, atop two columns. At center are three figures: a woman, child, and man. On the left, the woman sits on a cushioned chair and rests her feet on a stool and holds her left hand up to her chin. A child stands in the center, facing forward and draped in a floor-length garment. At the right and facing the woman, is a man who looks up towards the theater mask in his raised right hand. A scroll is in his left hand.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.458
Title
Funeral Relief of a Playwright and His Family
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1st-2nd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Asia Minor
Period
Roman Imperial period, Middle
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/289260

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3400, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Greece in Black and Orange
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pentelic (?) marble
Technique
Carved
Dimensions
56.5 cm h x 32.5 cm w x 8 cm d
(22 1/4 x 12 13/16 x 3 1/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: During installation in February 2017, curators/conservators noted that the inscription under the relief is more visible due to the conservation treatment. While this was not visible/legible prior to the treatment, it can now be seen and SE will be finding a graduate student to read it completely. See paper file for photographs.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David M. Robinson (by 1960), bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1960.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson.
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.458
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Mimicking architectural forms, the pointed top of this stele is in the shape of an aedicula or naiskos with a theater mask at the center of the pediment. In main field are three figures: a woman, child, and man. On the left, the woman sits on a cushioned chair and rests her feet on a stool. She raises the left edge of her veil. A child stands in the center, facing forward and draped in a floor-length himation. At the right and facing the woman, is a man who looks up towards the theater mask in his raised right hand. A scroll is in his left hand.

Beneath the figural scene is a badly damaged inscription.
Commentary
The subject of actors or playwrights on Greek stelai has a long tradition, dating to as early as the fourth century BCE. The choice of subject suggests that the relief may belong to an actor and his family.

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
105

Funerary Relief

The stele is complete. There is some surface abrasion and incrustations. The inscription of four lines has been nearly defaced. The upper half of the actor and his right arm/hand/mask may have been recut.

The naiskos or aedicula façade has a mask from the theater in the center of the pediment (where usually a round shield is shown). On the left, a seated woman, a pillow on her chair and her feet on a footstool, is raising her veil, the edge of her hooded cloak, with her left hand, and has her right hand across her lap. In the center, a child stands in orator's pose. On the right, a man faces a tragic mask that he holds up in his right hand; a scroll is in his lowered left hand.

This appears to be an Attic, or, more likely, a Greek island grave stele of the Roman Imperial period, perhaps the monument of an actor and his family. An example found in Piraeus and preserved in the museum there, only the lower half surviving, shows a mother with children in the same taste and complexity as this scene (Conze, 1911-1922, p. 97, no. 2110, pl. CCCCLXII; also pl. CCCXCII, no. 1868, pl. CCCCI, no. 1882).

Funerary stelai with playwrights or actors holding masks can begin with the famous Attic example of an elderly poet of the Middle Comedy, perhaps Aristophanes about 380 B.C., seated with one mask in hand, one above in the background (Bieber, 1961, p. 48, fig. 201).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 28, no. 218
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 117, no. 105
  • John Bodel and Stephen Tracy, Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA: A checklist, American Academy in Rome (New York, 1997), p. 48.

Exhibition History

  • The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961
  • Ancient Installation at Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, 09/30/2013 - 01/26/2015
  • 32Q: 3400 Greek, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/17/2017 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu