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(piano music)
Man: At the end of the fifth century BC,
the end of the very brief period that we call
the high classical moment,
there was a resurgence of funerary sculpture in Athens.
Woman: In fact, we're standing in a room
in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens
that's filled with grave markers,
most of them in the form of what our
historians called stele or upright slabs decorated
with relief sculptures.
Man: Not so different from what we in the modern
world would recognize as a grave stone.
Woman: Exactly.
Interestingly, there was a disappearance
of this type of monument during that high
classical moment and then we see it reappear.
Man: What we do have in the high classical
moment is most of the great sculptors
working on the sculptural program of the
Parthenon and the other buildings of the Acropolis.
But we see private sculpture begin to re-emerge.
That is, sculpture that is not part of a program of the state.
Woman: Exactly. Before the classical period
in the archaic period,
there were kore and kouros,
the male and female figures that were set up
by the elite Greek families as funerary markers,
but during the period of democracy in Athens,
the state was primary and not wealthy families.
Man: You see this resurgence especially
in the cemeteries just outside of the city gates of Athens.
Woman: That's where this particular sculpture
was found, which is called the grave stele of Hegeso.
Hegeso is the woman who is shown seated
opening a box of jewelry presented to her
by her servant and examining a necklace,
which is no longer there,
but which was once represented in paint.
Man: There is such a precise rendering
of the chair that she sits on.
Woman: Don't forget women's fear was the home.
Women were not allowed to be citizens of Athens.
Hegeso is shown in a domestic setting.
We see plasters on either side and a pediment
above, on which we see an inscription,
that says, "Hegeso, daughter of Proxenos."
Women in ancient Greece led very circumcribed
lives that were defined by their
relationships with men.
First their fathers and then their husbands.
Man: But I think that what I find most
compelling is it's quiet reverence.
This is so much in keeping with the tradition
of the high classical that we see in Parthenon sculpture.
Woman: So this is a style that resembles
very closely the kind of carving that we see
on the figures on the Parthenon Frieze.
Drapery that very closely follows the form
of the body that creates elaborate folds
and swirls that have a visual interest
in their own right.
The drapery that bunches up between her two
arms and around her belly and between her ***
are beautiful passages of sculpting.
Man: Her foot is resting on a foot rest
so that there is no part of her is actually touching the ground.
We see beautiful representation of her foot
foreshortened and wearing a sandal.
Look at the very delicate veil that falls
to the right of the shoulder or the way
in which the drapes around her legs
fall on the far side of the chair.
And yet the drape by her waist falls
on this side of the chair.
So although we have this very shallow space,
we have the full width of the body.
Therefore all of this really vivid carving.
This is a quiet image that is absolutely
appropriate to the solemn mood of a grave stele.
(piano music)