.jpg?width=1200)
Funerary Stele of Bathyklea
Unknown · c. 225-150 BC
Only the top of the tombstone survives, but it is a lively piece of architecture in miniature. A small pediment shows two tritons, half men and half fish, painted blue and red, swimming towards a mound in the centre, the image of a grave. Below runs a Doric frieze whose six panels are carved with water jars, offering dishes and rosettes, and beneath that a scroll of leaves and flowers. Under the frieze a single word is cut: Bathyklea, the name of the woman buried here. Traces of white plaster show that the whole surface was once coated and coloured.
The stele was made in Thebes in Boeotia and set up at Tanagra, the town famous for its terracotta figurines, some time between the late third and the mid second century BC. Hellenistic tombstones of this type imitate the facades of small temples, and the tritons and the mound may refer to the journey of the dead across the water. The central acroterion and part of the scroll are lost. The Louvre bought the fragment in 1900, and it is displayed in the gallery of Greek inscriptions, where the writing on the stones is the main exhibit.
Did You Know? The painted tritons on the pediment still keep their blue and red colours more than two thousand years after the burial.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.