Macedonian Painting and the Transformation of Familiar Images in a Funerary Context

The wall-paintings of underground tombs in Macedonia, dating from the fourth to the mid-second centuries B.C., have preserved an extraordinary repertoire of scenes, often adapted from monumental paintings in Athens and other artistic centres. The coronation of the warrior, the victor sitting on spoils and the abduction of Persephone are some of the themes exploited from other contexts to embellish the final dwellings of the Macedonian elite. The coronation of the warrior and the victor sitting on spoils derive from civic dedications, while the rape of Persephone could normally be found in sanctuaries. Initiates reading from sacred texts was a theme invented in the funerary art of Athens. The judgement of souls in the Underworld, on the other hand, may well have been invented in Macedonia to decorate tomb façades.

 

 

About the Speaker:

Olga Palagia is Professor of Classical Archaeology, Emerita, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Educated in Athens and Oxford, she is a specialist in Greek sculpture and Macedonian painting. She has published a book on the pediments of the Parthenon and has edited numerous volumes of conference proceedings. Her most recent publication is the edited De Gruyter Handbook of Greek Sculpture.