Fragment of a Funerary Naiskos (Monument in the Shape of a Temple)

about 330 BCE

Greek; Athens

Travelers in ancient Greece and Rome regularly encountered large stone monuments like this along the roadsides, marking the burial sites of elite families. They were made in a range of shapes and sizes and often preserve visual hints about who the deceased person was in life. In this example, three larger-than-life-sized figures are chiseled so deeply into the stone that they are carved nearly in the round. The two male individuals are shown clasping hands—a parting gesture common in funerary scenes. While there is no text to conclusively identify the figures, the standing man is likely the person who died, shown sharing a final farewell with his loved ones, perhaps his mother and father.

Status: On View, Gallery 151
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Greek
Title: Fragment of a Funerary Naiskos (Monument in the Shape of a Temple)
Place: Athens (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 330 BCE
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 152.4 × 111.8 × 33 cm (60 × 44 × 13 in.)
Credit Line: Alexander White Collection
Reference Number: 1928.162
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/55887/manifest.json

Margarete Bieber, “An Attic Tombstone in The Art Institute of Chicago,” Art in America 30 (1942), pp. 104-09.
Cornelius C. Vermeule, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America: Masterpieces in Public Collections in the United States and Canada (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), p. 115.
John Griffiths Pedley, Greek Art, Museum Studies: Ancient Art at The Art Institute of Chicago 20, 1 (1994), pp. 48-49 (ill.), no. 31.
“CLEOPATRA. THE ANCIENT WORLD,” Computer program. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997).
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 30.

Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012 - present.

Edward Zoumpoulakis, Athens, Greece; sold to Joseph Brummer (1883-1947), New York City, 1926 [Brummer Gallery Inventory Card]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1928; price reimbursed by Alexander White, 1928.

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Fragment of a Funerary Naiskos (Monument in the Shape of a Temple)

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.