Marble Grave Stele Analysis

I chose the object, Marble Grave Stele with Family Group (560 B.C). This object I found interesting because it is a funerary object that do not have a story that is strongly believed to be true. It has two stories that could go either way. The first story is that the woman, who’s body is mostly missing, is the one in which the family to the right is mourning her death. The other story is that the woman is the only one who is mourning the loss of her family; being the sole survivor. Unfortunately the frame that was once around the stele no longer exist so we will never know who is deceased but we are able to see the heartache and sadness in the sculpture. This object is made of pentelic marble; I was interested to know why this marble was …show more content…
Being that it was at a cemetery I believe that it was a used as a funerary object; such as the object I chose for this project. The main difference is the objects themselves, Anavysos Kouros is an object is carved all the way around. The Marble Grave Stele is an object that is only to be seen from a frontal view. Both of these objects are made of marble and seem to be the same color so there is a chance that they are made of the same marble. Both of these objects seem to be around the same height, the stele stands at 67 inches (5.5 feet tall) and Anavysos Kouros stands 6 feet 4 inches tall, a little …show more content…
It shows the pain that both parties are going through no matter which way it is to be seen. It shows that something happened and that these person or people are in pain. The Anavysos Kouros doesn’t show a story, it shows a person. It shows in detail how this person wanted to be seen; the stele doesn’t show the family in a way that people will look up to and say they want to be just like. People who then say, I don’t ever be in either one of the family or young woman’s situation no matter which way the story goes due to the sadness and pain the sculpture shows, actually see it. The features are different as well, the stele looks as though the family have the same features, from the arm that are the same shape just smaller scaled for the different family members. They also aren’t the “ideal” body time they aren’t shown as extremely muscular such as Anavysos. Also, the family seems to have had extremely similar, if not the same facial features, this could be to show that they are family. But the Anavysos has a different face; he has large eyes, large jaw, and fairly large nose. I think it is safe to say, that his features where made large all around to show power and strength. Lastly, Anavysos has and inscription that states, “Stop and mourn by the tomb of dead Kroisos, whom raging Ares destroyed one day as he fought in the foremost ranks.” This almost validates that society should morn him that he is someone