Grave Stele (400–350 BCE): Art, History and Details

Grave Stele (400–350 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Carved in high relief, the original composition of this Attic grave marker can be reconstructed by comparison with more complete examples elsewhere (such as the Stele of Hegeso in Athens [National Archaeological Museum, 3624]). The standing figure at left likely represents a maid or servant, her hair mostly contained within a sakkos (haircloth). Holding a pyxis (small container) in her left hand, she approaches the more fragmentary seated figure at right. This woman, draped and casting her eyes downward, represents the deceased, perhaps Phanostrate, as one scholar has restored the partial name Phan... inscribed in the fragmentary epigram on the preserved portion of the lintel.

Object facts

• Title: Grave Stele
• Date: 400–350 BCE
• Culture: Greece
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: pentelic marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 128.3 cm (50 1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1924.1018

A detail from the museum

The fragmentary seated woman at right represents the deceased.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Leonard C. Hanna

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.