Painted limestone funerary slab with a man controlling a rearing horse

Unknown

2nd half of 3rd century BCE · Limestone, paint · Greek and Roman Art

During the Ptolemaic period a distinctive type of subterranean tomb for multiple burials proliferated in the cemeteries around the city of Alexandria. Underground chambers cut into the living rock radiated from a central courtyard open to the sky. Most chambers contained a number of loculi, long narrow niches cut into the walls, which served as burial slots. Some loculi were sealed with painted limestone slabs in the form of small shrines. Here, a lively depiction of a man trying to bridle a horse, while a boy stands behind him, commemorates a man from Thessaly in Northern Greece, who must have been one of the many foreigners who congregated in the wealthy, cosmopolitan Ptolemaic capital.

Artist

Unknown

Date

2nd half of 3rd century BCE

Medium

Limestone, paint

Culture

Greek

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of Darius Ogden Mills, 1904