“Marble Grave Stele of a Little Girl”
“Marble Grave Stele of a Little Girl” is a gorgeous marble sculpture that dates to 450 to 440 B.C., during the Classical Greek period. This stele was placed upright at the grave of a child. It is one of the earliest child memorials of the ancient Greeks found to date. It was made with Parian marble, one of the most prized marbles from antiquity.
This marble grave memorial depicts a young girl holding two doves in her hands. She is sad as she says goodbye to her beloved pet doves. Her wavy hair is delicately carved, with the top half gathered into a bun. She is wearing a peplos, the traditional dress during the Late Archaic and Classical Greek periods, but unbelted. Her feet are clad in sandals. When this stele was first erected at the gravesite, it was brightly painted and there were straps painted onto her feet.
This stele was found in 1785 on the Greek Island of Paros, one of the Cycladic Islands in the Aegean Sea. The Cycladic Islands are a group of islands in the Aegean Sea that contain an abundance of high-quality marble as a natural resource. The island of Paros had its own school of sculpture and many of the most skillful carvers during the Classical Greek period came from this island, including Agorakritos and Skopas. The marble from Paros, known as Parian marble, was highly prized throughout antiquity. It was exported to many areas of Greece and has even been found at archaeological sites outside of Greece. It is still expensive today.
“Marble Grave Stele of a Little Girl” is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, in the United States.
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