with the birds of the Lake Stymphalis, with the Cretan bull, with Atlas, in the Augean stables) shows a strong typological and stylistic similarity; all these figures are also characterized by their “severe” expression, a term used by modern critics to define Greek art in the first half of the 5th century B.C. in the Greek world. It is especially worth noting the subtle treatment of
the faces, the rendering of the clearly delineated beard and mustache, with a slightly rounded, superficial modeling, and without details for the locks, which would have been painted. This stele would have therefore been produced in a workshop of mainland Greece (Peloponnese). It can be dated to between circa 470 and 450 B.C.
CONDITION Excellent state of preservation, but lower part now lost; the stele is composed of two reglued large fragments (central crack, in diagonal). Minor chips and small repairs. Surface in very good condition, aside from a superficial wear and lime deposits. PROVENANCE Formerly, J. Lions collection, St-Tropez – Geneva, acquired in the early 1970s. BIBLIOGRAPHY On Greek funerary steles during this period: CLAIRMONT C. W., Classical Attic Tombstones, Kilchberg, 1993. PFUHL E. – MÖBIUS H., Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs, T. 1, Mainz/Rhine, 1977, pp. 8-37. Some related steles with young servants and dogs: BOARDMAN J., Greek Sculpture, The Classical Period, London, 1985, fig. 58 (Aegina). HAMIAUX M., La Sculpture grecque, t. I, Paris, 2001, no. 152, p. 158 (Louvre, Attica). PFUHL E. – MÖBIUS H., Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs, T. 1, Mainz/Rhine, 1977, nos. 10, 12, 37 (eastern Greece). On the sculptures in Olympia: STEWART A., Greek Sculpture, A Exploration, New York – London, 1990, pp. 142 ff. (with previous bibliography). 59