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Photographer: Angela Kalinowski
Resource Type
Genre
Physical Form
Extent
1 item
Subject
Temporal Subject
Note
The images of boxing, chariot racing, duelling with weapons are interpreted as images of funeral games that were held in honour of the deceased. The images of the funeral games were painted on the two long sides of the tomb, occurred in tombs of both male and female deceased. They are comparable to the tomb paintings of Etruria in subject matter but the Etrurian examples cease at the end of the 5th century BCE. The tombs are of interest because some scholars have seen in the ones that depict men fighting with sharp weapons the origins of Roman gladiatorial combat, which originally took place in a funerary context. Potrandolfo, A., A Rouveret, M. Cipriani. The Painted Tombs of Paestum. 2nd ed. Paestum: Pandemos, 2004. Ville, G. La Gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École française de Rome, 1981.
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Access Condition
Attributed to Angela Kalinowski under the license CC-BY-NC 4.0
Abstract
This fresco from the north wall depicts the lead charioteer. He wears a red belted tunic and a close cap or helmet and rides a very low chariot. His arms are outstretched and he loosely holds the reins of his speeding horses, one of which is black and the other, golden. Above the charioteer a black line with a cloth (?) swag or awning depicts the architecture in which the scene takes place. The five images in this series are from the south and north long walls of the same cist tomb, Tomb X of the Laghetto necropolis. They depict funerary games that were part of the rituals surrounding the burial of an elite man or woman in 4th century BCE Lucanian society.
Institution Name
Origin Place Name
Paestum (Poseidonia)
Origin Country
Italy