Fragment of a Grave Monument (4th-3rd century BCE): Artwork and History

Fragment of a Grave Monument (4th-3rd century BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Greek.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

When this object came to the Art Institute, it was cracked in two. Experts even questioned whether the fragments belonged together, as they were misaligned and of different colors. Upon examination, it was found that the two parts were joined by lead dowels that had caused the skewed alignment, and that they were, in fact, a perfect match. The discoloration was caused by weathering that had occurred while the object lay buried in different areas of iron-rich soil. After removing the lead dowels, the two fragments were cleaned using high-pressure steam and both synthetic and paper-based poultices. Conservators created a special fill made of paper, resin, and marble dust to craft a seamless join. The pieces were then joined with an adhesive before filling in the crack and associated losses.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment of a Grave Monument
• Date: 4th-3rd century BCE
• Artist attribution: Greek
• Place of origin: Ancient Greece
• Medium: Marble
• Dimensions: 63.5 × 30 × 14.5 cm (25 × 11 7/8 × 5 3/4 in.)
• Type: Funerary Object
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1963.82

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Tiffany Blake

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.