Painted Funerary Plaques and some Remarks on Prothesis

Abstract

Throughout the history of figure-decorated pottery in Attica the artists also painted flat clay plaques for use as dedications. In addition, for a limited period of a little over a century we find from their workshops similar objects designed specifically for the decoration of tombs: it is with these that this article is concerned, and a catalogue of the surviving examples known to me is appended. All are painted in the black-figure technique and all figure the prothesis, the laying-out of the dead with the accompanying dirge, and many also the assembling of guests and preparation for the procession to the tomb, the ekphora. The plaques themselves have been found in the cemeteries of Athens as well as in outlying villages in Attica, though never in position on a tomb.Zschietzschmann, in his study of prothesis scenes in Greek art, commented on the fact that these funerary plaques may be divided into those that form part of a series and those complete in themselves, without, however, distinguishing them in his list. We shall see that this division is not a meaningless convenience, for it reflects also their chronology, scale, and ultimate setting. For this reason I have distinguished between the plaque series and the single plaques in the catalogue below, and will deal with each class separately, detailed remarks about individual pieces being reserved for inclusion with their description in the catalogue.