Ancient Roman statuary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: LIMESTONE FUNERARY RELIEF from TARANTO (Fletcher Fund, 1929)

Speranza

Limestone funerary relief
Period: Hellenistic
Date: ca. 325–300 B.C.
Culture: South Italian, Tarentine
Medium: Limestone
Dimensions: H. 23 1/16 in. (58.5 cm); width as preserved 21 1/8 in. (53.6 cm)
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1929
Accession Number: 29.54
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 162

Taranto was a wealthy Greek colony on the southeast coast of Italy, a pivotal location along the trade routes between Greece and Italy.

During the fourth century B.C., ostentatious grave monuments in the form of small temple-like buildings decorated with painted sculpture filled the city cemetery.

This relief must come from such a building.

The relief represents a  warrior and a woman standing by an altar.

Between them is a vase for pouring a libation on the altar.

On the wall behind them hang a cuirass, a helmet, and a sword, presumably the arms of the dead warrior for whom they mourn.

It has been suggested that the relief illustrates a scene from Greek tragedy.

References:

Richter, G. 1929.
"An Italian Limestone Relief--A Recent Acquisition."
Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 24(11): pp. 301-4.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987.
Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 47, pp. 10, 66.