THESSALIAN OR IONIAN, SEVERE STYLE, CIRCA 475-460 B.C.

At the end of the Archaic period, a law was passed in Attica that prohibited the erection of grave monuments, however production continued in other parts of Greece, including Thessaly in north eastern Greece, the greek islands, Italy, and the Black Sea. It was not until the end of the 5th Century that the production of grave monuments appeared once more in Athens. The Severe Style (Early Classical) began at the end of the Persian wars, circa 480 B.C. and came to an end in circa 450 B.C.

Grave reliefs of this period are tall, narrow and usually depict just one figure, including old men and athletes, as on the above relief. The somewhat unnatural representation of the athlete's body, and the depiction of stylized, exaggerated musculature, is typical of the Severe style. For an athlete in a comparable pose with a similar angle to his head see a relief originally from the island of Nisyros and now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Turkey, acc. no. 1142 T . It is interesting to also note here the narrowness of the panel with the figure almost touching the outer edges. For a Severe Style stele with an athlete holding a strigil, see inv no: 2003.004.001 in the Michael C. Carlos Museum.

For a rare Attic example in the Severe Style with a youth, his head similarly cast down, cf. N.E. Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, pp. 88-89, no. 152. For other reliefs from Thessaly, op.cit. nos. 173-176.

The left side of the stele is engraved with an indistinguishable inscription with the name of the deceased ending "...tamas".