Funerary Monument with Three Figures

This funerary monument comes at the end of a series of funerary reliefs of outstanding significance in Athenian sculpture of the 5th-4th centuries B.C. It was probably created not long before the law of 317 B.C., which restricted funerary expenditure. The fragmentary hand-clasping gesture is an expression not of farewell but of a close-knit relationship, as is the woman's left hand placed on the man's shoulder. The deceased man is represented in a heroic pose, and is clearly the master mourned by the small servant child standing in the middle. The walls of a niche framed the high relief in its original position.