LATE CLASSICAL TO EARLY HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.

This belongs to a category of objects known as “Totenmahl” reliefs (literally “Feast of the Dead”), created for both funerary and votive purposes, often to honor men elevated to heroic status. The form typically depicts a banqueting man lounging on a kline surrounded by status-denoting attributes in the background, such as armor or a horse’s head, and a table with elaborately-carved legs in the foreground (see no. 121 in M. True and K. Hamma, eds., A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman and p. 195 in B.S. Ridgeway, Hellenistic Sculpture II). This relief preserves an attendant holding a kantharos standing next to a large calyx-krater; before him is a lion-legged tripod table surmounted by ritual food, with the hero reclining above. For a similar example, see no. 81 in M.B. Comstock and C.C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone.