Funerary Stele of Bako, Sokrates and Aristonike
Unknown · c. 340 BC
Two women clasp hands on this tall grave stele, the gesture called dexiosis that says farewell without a word. The seated one, on a stool with a cushion and footrest, wears her hair drawn up like a diadem and lets her himation slip from her shoulders. The other stands wrapped in her cloak. A small boy in a short cloak reaches up between them, a servant with a casket grieves in the background, and to the right another servant carries a baby. In the pediment above, a bird in profile perches. Traces show that the women once wore metal earrings pinned into the marble.
The architrave carries three names, Bako, Sokrates and Aristonike, so the monument was shared by a family, and the children make it a picture of a household. Carved in Athens around three hundred and forty BC, it was found there and belongs to the last flowering of Attic grave reliefs before a law of the late fourth century banned such luxury. The Louvre acquired it in 1910. Look at the depth of the carving, which shifts from high relief for the women to low relief for the bird and the servant.
Did You Know? Tiny holes in the marble show that the women once wore real metal earrings fixed into their carved ears.
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