Gable of a funerary stele

Date3rd c

Mediummarble

Dimensions42 x 47 x 7 cm

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Dr. Lillian Malcove

Object numberM82.323

DescriptionMarble funerary stele fragment in low to deep sculpted relief. Three portraits busts: two larger ones of a male and female in central roundel with a smaller female bust portrait in roundel surmounting the larger figures of a man and a woman. Are the larger figures the deceased shown with their daughter? Ornament in low relief around the figures/roundels includes grape vines with fruit, a small bird, and implements used in weaving and personal use (comb, mirror). The gable belongs to a series of stelae executed by the stone cutters of a major workshop in the Tembris Valley of Turkey (Asia Minor) (cf. cat. # 16). This workshop produced "doorstones" as well as stelae with a niche containing full-sized standing figures of the deceased. Comparable woks from the Late Severnan Period by a carver known as Zelas, son of Teimeas and Alexandros - and some scholars speculate that Alexandros was the artist of our gable/stele.

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