Tomb of the colorful rooster
The grave of the colorful rooster is a man's grave from the middle of the 4th century BC, the remains of which were found in the Vannullo necropolis near Paestum and named there as grave no.4 . The remains are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Paestum , where they have been given inventory numbers 31734 to 31737.
painting
The original arrangement of the four rectangular plates that made up the burial chamber could only be reconstructed during the preparatory work for an exhibition in Germany in 2007. The eponymous painting of a colorful rooster is on the plate, which was on the narrow western side of the grave. It is 96 cm high and 99 cm wide, while the plates on the long sides are 97 cm high and 229 cm long.
The base zone, painted in dark red, takes up about a third of the image field; Above it is an arrangement of boulders on which, turned to the left, stands the rooster, a symbol of fertility. It is yellowish brown, the wings and three long tail feathers are darker brown. The comb, beak, head and stand are red. The rooster is not drawn in an outline, but composed of individual colored areas; the plumage on the neck is indicated by darker vertical brushstrokes. A red band hangs down from the upper border of the image field, a branch motif between two red bars, to the left of the bird's beak.
On the opposite narrow side and thus presumably at the head of the grave, the homecoming of the victorious knight could be seen, a motif that occurs frequently in Lukan tomb painting. The plate is somewhat damaged. You can still see the man in armor and helmet with the trophies attached to his lance, riding on a sweeping fox with a clipped mane. The yellow color of these elements indicates the sheen of the metal. He is welcomed by a made-up woman with a pleated, red-rimmed veil on the back of the head and a robe adorned with a red zigzag line. Arms and hands of this figure are no longer recognizable; however, it can be assumed that she presented him with the welcome drink expected in this scene. The faces and the still recognizable limbs are drawn with outlines, but while the skin color of the woman corresponds to the whitish-gray painting background, the skin of the knight is slightly tinted.
Something similar can be observed in the depictions of the funeral play scenes on the side panels of the grave: One showed how many longitudinal panels from men's graves at that time and area, an arrangement of two battle scenes; armed warriors and naked boxers competed in a duel. However, the arrangement of the two scenes is reversed compared to the grave of Nereid , the grave of the deer hunt or the grave of the pomegranates ; the arms fighters were in the left part of the picture. However, this is badly damaged. The two boxers can be seen better than the gun fighters in the right half of the picture, the one on the left having a dark skin color and the one on the right a reddish-brown skin color. To their left and facing them is an aulos player . He uses a phorbeia and wears white clothes adorned with red zigzag lines and braids and black boots. His unclothed parts of the body are drawn with dark outlines and colored in light skin color, the dark hair is illustrated by internal drawings.
The obligatory chariot race is depicted on the other long panel : two bigae follow each other, visually separated by a column decorated with a band and a garland hanging from the upper edge of the picture. The drivers have harnessed a fox on the left and a fallow on the right; the lighter horse is only indicated by contours that look almost like a shadow from its partner. The charioteers wear long white robes adorned with red and each have one knee bent. You both look forward, hold the reins with your left hand and handle the whip with your right. In addition to the hair and beard color of the two racing drivers, only the design of the wheels of the two cars offers variations. While the front one has four radial spokes, the wheel of the rear car is constructed differently.
Grave goods
The grave of the colorful rooster was furnished with numerous additions. Underneath was a 25.1 cm high red-figure neck amphora , which is adorned with a naked young man wearing an egg phiale and a bandage. Another band can be seen at the top right in the background; the shoulder of the vessel, which was given inventory number 31738 in the museum in Paestum, is adorned with a tongue pattern, the neck with a palmette . A red-figure kylix with a diameter of 18 cm and a height of 5 cm carries in the tondo the image of a woman with a naked torso, who is handling a branch and a mirror. Here, too, there is a band in the background. The vessel has the inventory number 31740. An unadorned black patera also belonged to the grave goods, as well as a bronze belt and other objects.
literature
- 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. 112–119 and update (loose sheet)