An Attic funerary relief, sometimes also known as the Mithridates funerary relief is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (NAMA), with the inventory number 4464. Its date is uncertain.
An Attic funerary relief, sometimes also known as the Mithridates funerary relief is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (NAMA), with the inventory number 4464. Its date is uncertain.
The Pentelic marble relief consists of two plates and there must have been a third piece on the left hand side, containing at least the tail of the horse. The central figure of the relief is a horse moving to the right, with its head pulled upwards away from the right edge of the relief. A portion of the horses nose is missing, the only substantial damage to the piece. Its left foreleg is raised and bent, the right is stretched out and planted firmly in the ground. The hind legs reinforce the horse's position, the left hind leg is in very low relief, only barely extending out of the surface. On the horse's back is a panther pelt, which is attached around its front. At the front, to its left, stands a stable boy who reaches up to strike the horse with a whip, as the pained posture of the horse's head makes clear. The boy wears a chiton. His hair is cut short, but the pattern of the locks indicates that he is an exotic foreigner. It is probably that he is an African slave, most likely from Ethiopia.
Arabs and Africans were depicted in Greek art from the fourth century BC. In addition to this example, the 2-metre-high (6.6 ft), 1.9-metre-wide (6.2 ft) relief found in 1948 near the Larisa metro-station must date to near the end of the fourth century BC. Other datings assign the relief to the first century BC. If one takes the earlier dating it is assumed that the relief belonged to a large grave naiskos; supporters of the later dating often connect it with the funerary monument of King Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus.
Major exhibits at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens | ||
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| Cycladic | ||
| Minoan | ||
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A stele, from Greek στήλη, stēlē, plural στήλαι stēlai, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The surface of the stele often has text, ornamentation, or both. These may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of Greek Antiquity artifacts worldwide. It is situated in the Exarcheia area in central Athens between Epirus Street, Bouboulinas Street and Tositsas Street while its entrance is on the Patission Street adjacent to the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic university.
The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies". At one time, this imitation was taken by art historians as indicating a narrowness of the Roman artistic imagination, but, in the late 20th century, Roman art began to be reevaluated on its own terms: some impressions of the nature of Greek sculpture may in fact be based on Roman artistry.
The Heraion of Samos was a large sanctuary to the goddess Hera, on the island of Samos, Greece, 6 km southwest of the ancient city of Samos. It was located in the low, marshy basin of the Imbrasos river, near where it enters the sea. The late Archaic temple in the sanctuary was the first of the gigantic free-standing Ionic temples, but its predecessors at this site reached back to the Geometric Period of the 8th century BC, or earlier. The ruins of the temple, along with the nearby archeological site of Pythagoreion, were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1992, as a testimony to their exceptional architecture and to the mercantile and naval power of Samos during the Archaic Period.
The Temple of Ares was a Doric hexastyle peripteral temple dedicated to Ares, located in the northern part of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Fragments from the temple found throughout the Agora enable a full, if tentative, reconstruction of the temple's appearance and sculptural programme. The temple had a large altar to the east and was surrounded by statues. A terrace to the north looked down on the Panathenaic Way. The northwest corner of the temple overlays one of the best-preserved Mycenaean tombs in the Agora, which was in use from ca. 1450-1000 BC.
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