Totenmahlrelief
- Title:
- Totenmahlrelief
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
4th c. BCE
2009 (image)
- Site:
- Athens, Greece (reported discovery site) (original)
- Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall (Ground floor, showcase 1), Cornell University
Athens, Greece (reported discovery site) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0619
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 196
sticker: 196
in orange pencil on the back: 1231
carved in the back 1236
465 - File Name:
- CCC_0619.tif
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble relief (sculpture technique) (original) - Subject:
- Death and burial
Funeral customs and rites
Hero cults - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 48 x 34 x 8 (centimeters, width x height x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a well-preserved cast of a water-worn Greek banquet relief that is said to be from Athens. Through the fourth century BCE monuments like this one, known as Totenmahlreliefs, were generally votives dedicated to local heroes, the heroized dead, or chthonic deities. This relief, carved within a rectangular stone, depicts a bare-chested male banqueter reclining on on a couch facing towards the viewer's left and holding a rhyton up in his right hand. He is shown on a larger scale than others in the scene, in profile except for his front-facing chest. In front of the couch stands a food-laden table and at its foot sits a draped woman, presumably the banqueter's wife. Five smaller figures in two rows stand to the left (viewer's) of the couch, perhaps children of the banqueter. On the top row are two fully draped figures followed by a semi-draped (?) boy who holds a box on his head. Foregrounded below are two small, nude children. A nude boy standing to the right of the couch serves the banqueter wine from a krater shown in the bottom right corner of the relief. A coiled snake appears below the couch. The original relief was lost or destroyed during World War II. It survives today only in copies.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
(lost during World War II) - Bibliography:
- Jennifer Larson, Greek Heroine Cults (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 43-50.
Das Königliche Museum Fridericianum hessisches Landesmuseum zu Cassel. Führer durch die historischen und Kunstsammlungen (Marburg: N.G. Elwertʼsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1913), 4.
Jean-Marie Dentzer, Le motif du banquet couché dans le Proche-Orient et le monde grec du VIIe au IVe siècle avant J.-C. (École Française de Rome, 1982).
Margarete Bieber, Die antiken Skulpturen und Bronzen des königl. Museum Fridericianum in Cassel (Marburg: N. G. Elwertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1915), 38, no. 78, pl. XXXIII.78. - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Kassel, Museum Fridericanium (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.