Grave of the Mourners
The grave of the mourning women is a woman's grave from around 340 BC. It was found in the Gaudo necropolis near Paestum . His remains are housed in the National Archaeological Museum in Paestum and have inventory numbers 133457 to 133460.
description
The burial chamber was shaped like a gabled house. The pentagonal panels that formed the narrow sides are 188 cm high and 146 cm wide, the panels on the long sides are 135 cm high and 237 cm long. It was only in 2007 that it became clear about the arrangement of the plates in relation to one another, when the burial chamber was joined together in the form of a sarcophagus for an exhibition in Hamburg and in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin . In the museum in Paestum this is not possible due to the heavy weight of the stones.
One of the two panels on the narrow sides of the grave, once assigned to the east and now the west, shows two pomegranates , which are supposed to symbolize fertility, as well as two roosters. The rooster is considered to be the only animal that is always ready for coitus , and thus also a symbol of fertility. The two roosters stand opposite each other on a surface made up of brush dabs and pale brown curved, tendril-like lines, flanked on the right and left by pomegranates and plant motifs. From the red cross line that separates the rectangular picture field from the triangular gable field, two garlands and a red tänie hang down in the middle . Another pomegranate can be seen in the gable above a blue wave motif, framed by plant motifs.
On the plate from the other narrow side of the grave, the motif of the water or the sea is repeated not only in the gable, which is damaged but still reveals the jewelry corresponding to the other narrow side, but also in the actual painting: a female figure rides here an aquatic creature with an equine head and bridle and a fish tail. This scene is also framed by pomegranates and tendrils with palmettes . According to Bernard Andreae , this mermaid "shows the dead [...] the way to the islands of the blessed in the western sea." Similarly, he interprets a comparable figure from the grave of Nereid , which he regards as a man's grave.
The prosthesis of the dead can be seen on one of the longitudinal panels . The corpse lies on a lush bed, two pillows under the head and shoes on the feet that protrude from under the shroud. Two women in red robes are busy with the dead woman; one holds a tania in her raised left hand. Another tänie lies on the body of the dead. Household items hang on the wall behind this scene, and from the red crossbar above the scene, twig garlands and a tania. Pomegranates and tendrils with palmettes can also be seen here on the right and left. The background is formed by a reddish rectangle, above which, in turn, hill-like structures sprinkled with brush dabs rise with a pale yellowish-brown brushstroke.
On the other longitudinal panel, which has the same “frame design”, these hills are more irregular than on the first, perhaps because the scene cannot be conceived in an enclosed space. Three women facing left can be seen here. The first one carries a table with donated corpses on her head. You can see eggs and ointment vessels, including a lekythos . The one in the middle hits her chest in a gesture of complaint, the one on the right, in a particularly elaborately decorated robe, grabs her head, presumably to pull her hair.
literature
- Angela Pontrandolfo, Agnès Rouveret: Le tombe dipinte di Paestum. Panini, Modena 1992, ISBN 88-7686-202-1
- Bernard Andreae et al. a .: painting for eternity. The tombs of Paestum. Exhibition Bucerius Kunst Forum Hamburg, October 13, 2007 to January 20, 2008. Hirmer, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7774-3745-3 , pp. 88–94 and update (loose sheet)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernard Andreae: Grave of the lamenting women , in: Painting for eternity. The graves of Paestum , Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7774-3745-3 , p. 88
- ↑ Bernard Andreae et al. a .: painting for eternity. The tombs of Paestum. Exhibition Bucerius Kunst Forum Hamburg, October 13, 2007 to January 20, 2008. Hirmer, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7774-3745-3 , pp. 104–111, here p. 104