Grave of mother and child

The remains of women's grave no. 27 from the Andriuolo necropolis near Paestum are called the grave of mother and child . It became after 350 BC. Created. The grave slabs bear the inventory numbers 21381 to 21384 in the National Archaeological Museum in Paestum .

description

The narrow sides of the grave measure 147 × 100 cm, the long sides 100 × 221 cm. All four plates are decorated with pomegranates and garlands. Three of them also have figurative paintings.

The two panels on the narrow sides are painted with similarly composed scenes. On the east plate, a woman is shown walking to the left, carrying a child in her arms and being followed by a mourner under a garland. Only the head of this figure is well preserved; you can see that the mourner grabs her hair. The woman with the child could represent the deceased. Two women are depicted on the west plate, facing each other and beating each other on the chest. In the gables of these two panels there are lively painted thirteen- leaf palmettes . Wavy tendrils swing up from the gable corners in a kind of bell shape. They are forked; blossoms grow out of the forks.

The northern longitudinal plate is painted with two boys standing on mounds to the right and left of a large pomegranate. You could represent the older, surviving sibling who lost their mother and younger sibling. The boy on the right is wearing a short robe. He holds a black drinking bowl in his outstretched right hand and a wreath in his left. The boy on the left wears a long robe that goes below his knees and black boots. He too is holding a wreath, and in his left hand he is also holding a plate with eggs, a gift often given to the dead. The hanging ribbons and garlands, as well as the pomegranates with which these scenes are adorned, are shown very large in relation to the figures on the three sides of the tomb. On the fourth plate there is also this symbolic ornament, but no figure painting. In the catalog for the exhibition Painting for Eternity , the small figures are certified as expressively “lost”, and the author continues in his description of the pictorial program of this grave: “The figures are drawn with such dedication that a lack of time and haste determines this restrained figure program but the artist has evidently expressed an elegiac mood. "

Grave goods

Several vessels were added to the grave. A red-figure Lebes Gamikos by the painter from Würzburg shows on one side a woman walking to the right in a himation with a string of pearls and tänie . At the top left in the background of the picture is a tympanum , on the right another tänie. A standing Silenus can be seen on the other side . He's resting his right foot on a rock. In his left hand he holds a thyrsus staff and a wreath, in his right a pearl necklace. The shoulder of the vessel is decorated with a black varnished tongue stick , that of the lid with black varnished palmettes. A cut-out wavy band decorates the edge. The vessel is 21.5 cm high with the lid. It bears inventory number 21388 of the museum in Paestum.

A red-figure lekythus was also painted by the painter from Würzburg , which shows, among other things, a standing woman with a mirror and a dance. She turns to a naked young man with a himation on his lap. He has a staff in his left hand and a tania in his right. Between the figures there is a dot rosette in the background . The neck of the vessel with the inventory number 21386 is adorned with a vertical tongue stick, which is limited at the top by an ionic kymation . The lekythos is 37.2 cm high.

Another work by the painter von Würzburg is a 22 cm high skyphos . Depicted on one side of this vessel is a half-naked Dionysus sitting on a kline , holding an egg phiale , egg, wreath and tany . Before Dionysus there is a Silenus before a Luterion . He holds a thyrsus staff in his left hand and an egg in his right. The picture background is decorated with three ivy leaves. On the other side of the skyphus a seated, half-naked woman can be seen, holding a mirror, egg phial and wreath and facing a juvenile satyr standing in front of an arula . He is holding a leaf-bearing branch and a thyrsus. In the background of the picture, a garland can be seen above, as well as ivy leaves and tänien. The vessel has the inventory number 21390.

A red-figure lekanis with a height of 20 cm is also one of the grave goods. It shows a depiction of Eros holding an egg phial and a wreath in his left hand and a tania in his right hand. In front of him is an arula. Furthermore, a half-naked seated woman is depicted on the vessel, holding a box crowned with eggs in her left hand and a single egg in her right. Above the altar there is a tania in the background. The edge of the lid is decorated with a wavy ribbon, the knob with two black varnished palmettes. The vessel has the inventory number 21389.

Furthermore, the dead were given a 24 cm high, red-figure omphalos bowl. On this one can be seen a satyr who is stretching a branch towards a half-naked woman who is looking around for him. The woman, sitting on a rock, holds a mirror in her hand. At her side is a swimming bird, which, turned to the left, spreads its wings. A halo can be seen in the omphalos, which is surrounded by a painted wreath of dots. The vessel bears the inventory number 21387.

Another grave gift was a 21 cm high lekythos with inventory number 21385.

literature

• 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. 122-131

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernard Andreae and others: 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. 122-131, here p. 122