On view
Ancient Mediterranean Art
Relief from a grave monument: old priestess and two women on an altar,
ca. 320–300 BCE
South Italian, Tarentine
y1983-34
This rectangular relief would have been one of several set within the Doric frieze of a funerary chapel, known as a naiskos, in the Greek city of Taras, in southern Italy. Few complete naiskoi survive, but they are often depicted on contemporary Apulian red-figure vases. Two young women are seated on an altar in the sanctuary of an unidentified god. The elderly woman standing at the left is identified as a priestess by the large temple key resting on her shoulder. She speaks to the suppliants, perhaps questioning them or offering advice. Similar scenes on Apulian vases have been interpreted as reflecting contemporary theatrical productions, with mythical suppliants seeking protection from their pursuers. The upper surface of the projecting frame of the relief bears a fragmentary inscription, a rare feature that may have guided artisans in the assembly of the monument.
Information
Title
Relief from a grave monument: old priestess and two women on an altar
Dates
ca. 320–300 BCE
Medium
Limestone
Dimensions
27.5 x 30.0 x 8.8 cm (10 13/16 x 11 13/16 x 3 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, gift of the Willard T. C. Johnson Foundation, Inc., and an anonymous donor
Object Number
y1983-34
Place Made
Europe, Southern Italy
Inscription
Inscription on top edge, the last letter amputated by the break (encrusted) in the frame: [see accession card for reproduction];
Culture
Materials
Subject
Purchased by the Museum from Robin Symes, London, in 1983
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1983," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 43, no. 1 (1984): p. 18-42., p. 40-41 (illus.)
- "La Chronique des Arts: principales acquisitions des musées en 1984," Supplément à la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, no. 1394 (March 1985)., p. 27 (illus.); cat. no. 149
- Christian Aellen, Alexandre Cambitoglou and Jacques Chamay, Le peintre de Darius et son milieu : vases grecs d’italie méridionale, (Genève: Hellas et Rome, 1986)., p. 283 (illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 29 (illus.)
- B. S. Ridgway, et al., Greek sculpture in the Art Museum, Princeton University: Greek originals, Roman copies and variants, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1994)., cat. no. 27, pp. 85-88 (illus)
- Joan Breton Connelly, Portrait of a priestess: women and ritual in ancient Greece, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007)., p. 100, p. 102-103; fig. 4.16, pl. 26.
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 141 (illus.)
- Marc-Antoine Claivaz, "Deux suppliantes en quête d'un mythe", Genava 59 (n.s.) (2011).
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), pg. 308
