Attic grave relief (NAMA 4464)
An Attic grave relief , sometimes referred to as the grave relief of Mithridates , is exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (NAMA), where it has the inventory number 3344. The dating is controversial.
The relief made of Pentelic marble consists of two slabs, a third must be assumed on the left side, on which at least the horse's tail could still be seen. The central eye-catcher is a horse running to the right, whose head is inclined to the right out of the relief. The left foreleg is raised and angled, the right foreleg is straight and, reaching a little over the upper body and out of the head, is placed on the floor. The hind legs ensure that the animal stands securely, especially the left leg is only slightly carved out of the relief background. A panther skin lies on the horse's back, it extends to the chest. On the left front there is a stable boy who stretches out with a whip to hit the horse, which also explains the fearful posture of the horse's head. He wears a chiton and high boots ( endromides ). He wears his hair short. The curls mark him as an exotic stranger. It is probably a slave from Africa, most likely from Ethiopia .
Arabs and negroes have been featured in Greek art since the fourth century BC. Thus the relief found in 1948 near the Larisa underground station, 2 meters high and 1.9 meters wide, is mostly made towards the end of the 4th century BC. Dated. Other dates show the well-preserved relief, in which, apart from other minor bumps, only the horse's snout is missing, to the first century BC. While one assumes in an early dating that the relief belonged to a larger tomb naïskos , in the later dating the relief is often with a memorial for the Pontic king Mithridates VI. connected.
literature
- Nikolaos Kaltsas : Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens , The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2002 ISBN 0-89236-686-9 , p. 206.
Web links
- Relief with horse and black youth in the Arachne archaeological database