Tomb Relief

Why it matters

Although its findspot is unknown, this high relief almost certainly once sealed a burial niche of a mausoleum at Palmyra. It illustrates a blending of Roman and Parthian artistic traditions. Set within a sumptuous border of beads and leaves, a wealthy man awakens on a luxuriously cushioned bed as his attendant offers him a wine bowl decorated with crosshatchings. Both are dressed according to Parthian custom, wearing pants and pleated tunics, but the man’s languid pose is taken from classical prototypes. The subject is a variant of a formulaic funerary banquet scene in which proffered wine welcomes the deceased into a well-appointed afterlife.