A catalogue of sculpture in the Department of ... - Warburg Institute

SEPULCHRAL RELIEFS. 299Banquet becomes very common in Attica and elsewhere.In a normal example of the fully developed type, the chieffigure isthat of a man recumbent on a couch, holding acup. Before him is a table with food. A woman, accordingto Greek custom, is seated upright at the foot of thecouch. Boys or attendants are seen drawing wine. Thehead of a horse is often seen at the back of the relief.snake is frequently' introduced, and often drinks wine froma cup held by one of the figures. Further, a group ofadorant figures, usually on a small scale, may be representedabout to sacrifice at an altar, near the foot of thecouch.The meaning of this type has been a subject of longcontroversy, but it is best understood if the later reliefsare studied in connection with the oldest known specimensof the same subject. A series of archaic reliefs from theneighbourhood of Sparta (^Athenische Mittheilungen, ii.,pis. 20-25 ; Furtwaengler, Coll. Sahouroff, pi. 1 ; Journ.of Hellen. Studies, v., p. 123), contains subjects somewhatof the following character : A male and female figure,represented on a heroic or divine scale, are seated enthroned,holding as attributes a large two-handled cup,or a pomegranate. Figures of worshippers approach,carrying a pomegranate or a cock, and a snake issometimes present. The sculptures of the Harpy Tomb(No. 94), have been sometimes classed with the workshere described, but this has not yet been established.The transition from the Spartan type to the SepulchralBanquet type is still obscure, but a connecting link isfurnished by a relief from Tegea (^Athenische Mittheilungen,iv., pi. 7), in which the woman is enthroned, while theman reclines on a couch with a table before him. (Comparealso the relief from Mytilene No. 727.) It seemsprobable that we have in these reliefs symbolic representationsof oiferings made by living relations or descendantsA