Tomb Relief

230 CE
Overall: 55.3 x 73.7 x 18.5 cm (21 3/4 x 29 x 7 5/16 in.)
Weight: 356 lbs
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Location: not on view

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Description

Although its findspot is unknown, this high relief almost certainly once sealed a burial niche of a mausoleum at Palmyra. It illustrates a blending of Roman and Parthian artistic traditions. Set within a sumptuous border of beads and leaves, a wealthy man awakens on a luxuriously cushioned bed as his attendant offers him a wine bowl decorated with crosshatchings. Both are dressed according to Parthian custom, wearing pants and pleated tunics, but the man’s languid pose is taken from classical prototypes. The subject is a variant of a formulaic funerary banquet scene in which proffered wine welcomes the deceased into a well-appointed afterlife.
Tomb Relief

Tomb Relief

230 CE

Syria, Palmyra

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