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Funerary monument of Aththaia, daughter of Malchos

Palmyrene
Imperial Period
A.D. 150–200
Place of Manufacture: Syria, Palmyra

Medium/Technique Limestone
Dimensions Height: 55 cm (21 5/8 in.); width: 42 cm (16 9/16 in.)
Credit Line Museum purchase with funds donated by Edward Perry Warren in memory of his sister
Accession Number22.659
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsSculpture
From about the middle of the first century until the third quarter of the third century A.D., the city of Palmyra in the Roman province of Syria produced a distinctive body of funerary art. Limestone portrait reliefs, a specialty of Palmyrene sculptors, were used to seal off burial compartments set into the walls of subterranean and aboveground tombs. Palmyra's lavish funerary monuments were financed largely by wealth amassed through the caravan trade that carried goods inland from the Mediterranean Sea across the Syrian desert.

The bulk of the surviving reliefs feature the bust of a single male or female in one of several standardized formats. In this example, a woman dons the customary short-sleeved tunic and cloak, which is pulled up over her headdress to form a veil. She wears an impressive assortment of jewelry, including an engraved diadem, strings of jewels in her hair, pendant earrings, two necklaces, two bracelets, three rings, and a large circular brooch with three pendants. As on most Palmyrene funerary sculpture, an inscription above one shoulder records the name and lineage of the deceased, as well as a salutation: "Aththaia, daughter of Malchos, happy one, farewell." Although the names are clearly of local origin, the use of Greek script, rather than the usual Aramaic, reveals a desire to connect with the Hellenic cultural heritage of the eastern Mediterranean. The style of the relief similarly combines indigenous Near Eastern traits, such as the thinly incised eyebrows, with a heightened attention to naturalistic bodily forms more in line with the Classical artistic tradition. The sculptor of this deeply carved relief provided his provincial clientele with work that balanced the city's venerable funerary customs with an awareness of the prevailing fashion in the urban centers of the Roman Empire.

Catalogue Raisonné Sculpture in Stone (MFA), no. 401; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 116-117 (additional published references); Highlights: Classical Art (2008), p. 106.
DescriptionAn elaborate Palmyrene grave relief with a Greek inscription "Aththaia, daughter of Malchos, Happy One, Farewell." She wears a full tunic and a long himation (a cloak-like garment) which goes twice around her body and covers her head as a veil. Beneath this is a cloth headdress, an engraved diadem, and strings of jewels in her hair, which is looped back at the sides of her head to reveal pierced earlobes and elaborate pendant earrings. She also wears two necklaces, the outer one of gold chain with a sun-and-crescent pendant, two bracelets, three rings, and a large, circular brooch with three pendants hanging on her left breast. Her right hand is raised to her veil in a standard gesture for representations of women in Palmyrene funerary relief portraits; it may, as in Roman art, signal feminine modesty. Her left hand, supported by the sling of her himation, clasps a loop of fabric from her garment.

Although the Greek inscription betrays her Hellenic affinities, her face and the details of carving are thoroughly Eastern. The incised relief line of the eyebrows and the rubbery folds of the neck foreshadow Graeco-Buddhist sculpture in northern and northwestern India, and central Asia. The carving of the chiton (tunic) and himation is expertly handled, but the number of tight, zigzag folds also foreshadows Late Antique and Byzantine art.

The preservation is excellent, the surfaces being almost totally free of deterioration or deposit.
ProvenanceBy December 1909: said to have been in commerce in Beyrouth; by date unknown: Miss Amy Curtis Collection; August 24, 1922: purchased from Miss Amy Curtis by MFA with funds provided by Edward Perry Warren