Black Knight's Grave

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The returning knight

The grave of the black knight is the most famous grave from the Lukan times in Paestum . His remains can be seen today in the National Archaeological Museum in Paestum and bear the inventory numbers 21596 to 21599.

The grave was part of a large necropolis near Paestum, known as Andriuolo, which was excavated from the 1960s, with the black knight's grave being number 58. The individual graves such as the grave of the black knight consisted of four stone side walls, which were put together in the shape of a house, roofed with limestone slabs and covered by a burial mound. The insides of some graves were painted in frescoes immediately before burial ; the images could be described as "consumer art".

Burial chamber

Contrary to the name, which was chosen because of one of the tomb paintings, the grave of the black knight is a woman's grave. It was made around 340 BC. Designed. The painted panels on the narrow sides are 147 × 105 cm, the panels on the long sides 97 × 227 cm. The eponymous figure can be seen on the plate on the western narrow side: a returning rider on a black horse with white markings . The black horse walks from left to right, head held high; a front hoof is raised. The knight wears a helmet, shield and breastplate as well as greaves. With his eyes down, he looks at a large crater from which a tall flowering plant grows, which is decorated with bands.

The dead woman laid out

The young wife, whom the knight should have received with a welcome drink instead of this arrangement, apparently died before his homecoming: the east plate shows a prosthesis , a scene of laying out. With a rosy colored face and in black shoes, the dead woman lies under a white shroud on a kline with a red mattress and a red and white pillow. She wears a kind of diadem made of light red leaves with a dark red border. The hair of the dead is brown. Like the deceased, another person can be seen in profile on this plate: Behind the kline is a young woman who is apparently about to decorate the deceased with a wreath. In front of the Kline you can also see a table on which three pomegranates and a black bowl can be seen. Links on the legs of the dead hanging on the wall a jewelry box, an inverted Wollkorb ( Kalathos ) and the processed wool which is wound into a large tangle. In contrast to the west plate, the gable field has ornamental decorations. In the middle there is a palmette motif, flanked by a rooster and a hen. These pictorial elements not only indicate the sphere of activity of women in ancient times in the house and yard, but the rooster is also considered a symbol of fertility and often appears in this function in Lukan tomb painting. The same importance is ascribed to the flowering plant on the western plate.

Mourners

On the long plate that formed the north side of the tomb, a sphinx can be seen with a woman's head and a raised left front paw. Its job is evidently to bring the dead to the afterlife. Two warriors fight each other in front of the Sphinx; apparently in the course of the funeral games in honor of the dead. On the right are three people who belong to the approaching funeral procession, a flute player and two plaintive women.

The long plate on the south side is painted with mythical creatures. In the center there is a female panther that is attacked by griffins from right and left . This part of the tomb paintings is comparable to the Tomba François from Vulci , which dates from the same time as the tomb of the black knight and also combines representations of the real world with mythological images and animal fighting scenes.

The paintings already show the attempt to achieve a three-dimensional effect by means of light and shadow as well as perspective representation.

Grave goods

Three grave goods were preserved in the grave of the black knight, a kylix , a lekanis and a skyphos . The red-figure kylix is ​​8.5 cm high and 23 cm in diameter. It was designed by the painter from Paestum . In the tondo she shows a dressed, standing female figure, holding a tania in her right hand and a mirror in her left. She stands in front of a seated, naked youth who is holding a branch in his right hand and a wreath in his left hand and is near a small house altar. Another tänie can be seen in the background above. The picture is closed at the bottom by a base line with ionic kymation . On the outside of the kylix, which bears the inventory number 21602, a branch of laurel can be seen.

The red-figure lekanis with lid is 20.5 cm high and has a diameter of 32 cm. It shows a naked woman crouching in front of a house altar and turning her head towards a Silenus who is holding a Tänie. An Eros crouches on a rock in front of the woman , holding a wreath in his right hand and an egg in his left. The outside of the lid is decorated with a recessed wavy band; the lid knob with two black varnished palmettes. The Lekanis bears the inventory number 21600.

On one side of the skyphus a leaf branch with ivy and vine leaf tendrils can be seen, on the other a leaf branch with rosettes, which are held in opaque white and yellow. The vessel is 13 cm high and has a diameter of 12 cm. It bears the inventory number 21603.

exhibition

Grave slabs and gifts were shown in 2007 as part of an exhibition in Hamburg and in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin . The four grave slabs were put together to form a sarcophagus on the occasion of this exhibition and were thus presented in their original arrangement. In the museum in Paestum, the panels can only be shown individually, as the floor is not stable enough for the assembled burial chamber.

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 at Bucerius Kunst Forum Hamburg, October 13, 2007 to January 20, 2008. Hirmer, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7774-3745-3 , pp. 94-103

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Josef Tutsch, Painted for Eternity, Visible for a Day. Pictures from the graves of Paestum in Berlin , Scienzz-Magazin, July 3, 2008
  2. Bucerius Kunst Forum  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / bkf.hanneslau.de