Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant (edited, focus on snake bracelets)

On this funerary relief, a woman reaches out to lift the lid of a shallow box held by an attendant. The deceased woman must have come from a wealthy family. Numerous elements signal her high status, as do the scale and overall quality of the work. She sits on an elaborate, high-backed chair with a turned leg decorated with lions' paws and an arm support in the form of an eagle. She also wears snake bracelets, presumably gold, on her upper and lower arms (identified by the blue circles).

The depiction of the deceased reaching for an item held by an attendant has a long history in Greek funerary art. The small stature of the attendant and her short, cropped hair have been variously interpreted as indications that she is a young relative in mourning, or a servant or enslaved person. The attendant's presence serves to further elevate the status of the deceased, either by representing her familial connections and/or fertility, or by alluding to as someone who could afford a servant or slave.

The shallow box held by the attendant raises several questions. The two holes apparent on its base are evidence of an ancient repair, perhaps in the form of two metal pins intended to hold a now lost marble component in place. The thinness of the box indicates that, like many works of ancient art, this relief was not intended as a photographic depiction of reality, but to convey the wealth and status of the deceased. Although the box appears too shallow to hold anything substantial, we can identify it as a jewelry box by comparison with other funerary reliefs that depict women pulling ribbons or jewelry out of larger, more naturalistic boxes.

The relief has been substantially altered since it was made. Originally, it took the form of a shallow naiskos, or three-sided, shrine-like grave monument, but several elements are missing: an architectural top portion, probably in the form of a pediment; the left side wall; and a lower portion that probably carried an inscription that conventionally would have named the deceased, members of her family, and perhaps her virtues. Technical analysis has revealed the presence of Egyptian blue pigment, not visible to the naked eye on the cushion, on which deceased sits, on the edges of the drapery of both figures, and in the background.