The picture presented shows a marble grave stele. The object was found in Smyrna, and it dates from approximately the period between 150 BC – 100 BC . The stele belongs to the British Museum in London.
The object is a grave which would have been placed in a cemetery. It as a height of 74.93 centimetres. It is made of marble, and it was created by the process of carving. This object was found in Smyrna, a place where many grave steles of this period have been discovered, and which have allowed academics to learn more about this kind of object. Most of the stele that come from Smyrna have specific characteristics which make them identifiable. One of their peculiarities is that on the top of the grave there is written in Greek the word demos …show more content…
The first feature would be how the figures are looking at each other, there is a narrative present. This is characteristic from the classical times, like we can see in the grave stele of Hegeso. Meanwhile in the Hellenistic period, the most common way to represent the people is without interaction between them, just looking at the front . In this case this might have been represented like this because they wanted to remark the relationship they had between husband and wife. Its size is also curious, as the Hellenistic tombs, are usually smaller than the Classical ones. This started to become smaller in Asia Minor and Aegan Greece , and then the trend spread. However, this one has a considerable size. In my opinion, it might be for a similar reason as why the interaction between them, this might be the tomb of both people, and the familiars wanted it to be bigger to represent both of them. On the other hand, the stele has elements that are typical from the Hellenistic period. For example, the fact that the man is sitting might have been chosen to prove he was an intellectually cultivated person. Another feature would be how the clothes of the woman remark her figure. In this time, there was an intention for the woman to be desirable, which was not present in the Classical period. I believe this might be because of the influence the Aphrodite of Knidos had in art during Hellenistic
The object is a grave which would have been placed in a cemetery. It as a height of 74.93 centimetres. It is made of marble, and it was created by the process of carving. This object was found in Smyrna, a place where many grave steles of this period have been discovered, and which have allowed academics to learn more about this kind of object. Most of the stele that come from Smyrna have specific characteristics which make them identifiable. One of their peculiarities is that on the top of the grave there is written in Greek the word demos …show more content…
The first feature would be how the figures are looking at each other, there is a narrative present. This is characteristic from the classical times, like we can see in the grave stele of Hegeso. Meanwhile in the Hellenistic period, the most common way to represent the people is without interaction between them, just looking at the front . In this case this might have been represented like this because they wanted to remark the relationship they had between husband and wife. Its size is also curious, as the Hellenistic tombs, are usually smaller than the Classical ones. This started to become smaller in Asia Minor and Aegan Greece , and then the trend spread. However, this one has a considerable size. In my opinion, it might be for a similar reason as why the interaction between them, this might be the tomb of both people, and the familiars wanted it to be bigger to represent both of them. On the other hand, the stele has elements that are typical from the Hellenistic period. For example, the fact that the man is sitting might have been chosen to prove he was an intellectually cultivated person. Another feature would be how the clothes of the woman remark her figure. In this time, there was an intention for the woman to be desirable, which was not present in the Classical period. I believe this might be because of the influence the Aphrodite of Knidos had in art during Hellenistic