The J. Paul Getty Museum

Grave Stele of Myttion

Object Details

Title:

Grave Stele of Myttion

Artist/Maker:

Unknown

Culture:

Greek (Attic)

Place:

Attica, Greece (Place Created)

Date:

about 400 B.C.

Medium:

Marble with polychromy

Object Number:

78.AA.57

Dimensions:

71.1 × 24.1 × 8.9 cm (28 × 9 1/2 × 3 1/2 in.)

See more

See less

Object Description

The young woman shown on this stele or grave monument represents the deceased. Faint traces of a Greek inscription painted above the woman’s head preserve her name, Myttion. Her long hair is brushed back from her face and fashioned into a braid wrapped around her head. She wears an unusual garment called a kandys, a long-sleeved knee-length coat inspired by Persian clothing. This style was adopted by Athenian women at the end of the 5th century B.C. and worn at religious ceremonies. The bird that Myttion holds may have been a pet or was perhaps an offering to the gods. Such a depiction of the deceased either alone or with family members was typical for grave markers of the Classical period (about 480–323 B.C.). The traces of pigment that have survived on this stele, especially the red color on Myttion's shoes, serve as a reminder that most Greek sculpture was originally painted.

Provenance
Provenance
by 1817 - 1841

Thomas Bruce, 7th earl of Elgin, 1766 - 1841 (Broomhall, Scotland), by inheritance to his son, James Bruce, 1841.

1841 - 1863

James Bruce, 8th earl of Elgin, 1811 - 1863 (Broomhall, Scotland), by inheritance to his son, Victor Bruce, 1863.

1863 - 1917

Victor Bruce, 9th earl of Elgin, 1849 - 1917 (Broomhall, Scotland), by inheritance to his son, Edward Bruce, 1917.

1917 - 1952

Edward Bruce, 10th earl of Elgin, 1881 - 1968 (Broomhall, Scotland), sold through Spink & Son, Ltd. (London, England) to J. Paul Getty, 1952.

1952 - 1976

J. Paul Getty, American, 1892 - 1976, upon his death, held in trust by the estate.

1976 - 1978

Estate of J. Paul Getty, American, 1892 - 1976, distributed to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Greek Art in Private Collections of Southern California (November 19 to December 17, 1963)
  • University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara, November 19 to December 17, 1963
Beyond Beauty: Antiquities as Evidence (December 16, 1997 to January 17, 1999)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), December 16, 1997 to January 17, 1999
Bibliography
Bibliography

Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum. Berlin: 1877-, Vol. II, pt. 3, p. 320, no. 4000.

Michaelis, Adolf. "Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. Supplement I." Journal of Hellenic Studies 5 (1884), pp. 143-161, p. 148 ff., no. 6.

Guhl, E., Leben der Griechen und Romer (Berlin, 1893), pp. 293, 295, fig. 370.

Conze, Alexander. Die Attischen Grabreliefs. (Berlin : W. Spemann, 1893), p. 819; pl. CLVI.

Smith, A. H. "Lord Elgin and his Collection." Journal of Hellenic Studies 36 (1916), pp. 163-372, p. 286n228, 293n23.

Kirchner, J. (ed.), Inscriptiones Atticae Euclidis anno posteriores. Inscriptiones Graecae II.2, part III, fasc. 2 (Berlin, 1940), , no. 12220.

Richter, Gisela M. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), p. 91; fig. 278.

Valentiner, William R., and Paul Wescher. The J. Paul Getty Museum Guidebook (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1954), p. 21, no. 4, ill.

Vermeule, Cornelius C. "Ancient Art in America: Greek and Roman Masterpieces." The Michigan Daily [Ann Arbor] (Sunday, May 22, 1955), p. 14, ill.

Getty, J. Paul, and Ethel Le Vane. Collector's Choice: The Chronicle of an Artistic Odyssey through Europe (London: W. H. Allen, 1955), p. 202.

Vermeule, Cornelius C. "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain." American Journal of Archaeology 59 (1955), p. 132, Broomhall no. 6.

Valentiner, William R., and Paul Wescher. The J. Paul Getty Museum Guidebook. 2nd ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1956), p. 13, no. 4, ill.

Stothart, Herbert. A Handbook of the Sculpture in the J. Paul Getty Museum. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1965), p. 25, no. I-72, pl. 14.

Getty, J. Paul. The Joys of Collecting (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1965), pp. 60-61, 68, ill.

Del Chiaro, Mario A. Greek Art in Private Collections of Southern California. A Loan Exhibition at the Art Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara, November 19-December 17, 1963 (revised and expanded edition: 1966), no. 17.

Frel, Jirí. Les sculpteurs attiques anonymes, 430-300 B.C. (Prague: Universita Karlova, 1969), p. 21, no. 77.

Kaloyeropoulou, Athena G. "Duo Attika Epitoumbia Anaglypha," Archaiologikon Deltion 24 A (1969), pp. 211-229, p. 227. Also mentioned on p. 259 in the English summary, "Two Attic Funerary Reliefs," pp. 258-259.

Frel, Jiří. "The Telemachos Workshop." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. 2 (Malibu: 1975). pp. 15-16, p. 15, no. I, 2.

Kinglsey, Bonnie. "The Stele of Myttion." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 2 (1975), pp. 7-14.

Stupperich, R., Staatsbegrabnis und Privatgrabmal im klassichen Athen (Munster, 1977).

Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. Guidebook: The J. Paul Getty Museum. 4th ed. Sandra Morgan, ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978), p. 45.

Frel, Jiří. Antiquities in the J. Paul Getty Museum: A Checklist; Sculpture I: Greek Originals (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1979), p. 16, no. 64.

Frel, Jiří. Antiquities in the J. Paul Getty Museum: A Checklist; Sculpture II: Greek Portraits and Varia (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, November 1979), addendum p. 43, no. 64.

Fredericksen, Burton B., Jiří Frel, and Gillian Wilson. The J. Paul Getty Museum Guidebook. 5th ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1980), p. 33.

Woysch-Méautis, Daphné. La representation des animaux et des êtres fabuleux sur les monuments funéraires grecs de l’époque archaïque à la fin du Ive siècle av. J.-C. (Lausanne: Bibliothèque historique vaudoise, 1982), as I-72, no. 78, pl. 15.

Yfantidis, K., Die Polychromie der hellenistischen Plastik (Mainz, 1984), p. 20n60.

Linders, T. The Kandys in Greece and Persia, Opuscula atheniensia, vol. 31, 1984, p. 109, p. 113, ill. fig. 2.

Linders, Tullia. "The Kandys in Greece and Persia," Opuscula Atheniensia XV: 8 (1984), pp. 107-114, p. 109; fig. 2.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 1st ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1986), pp. 11-12, fig. 12.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 2nd ed. (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988), p. 11, fig. 12.

Clairmont, Christoph W. Classical Attic Tombstones. (Kilchberg, Switzerland: Akanthus, 1993), vol. 1, pp. 269-70, no. 1.224.

Osborne, M.J., and Byrne, S.G., eds., A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vol.2, Attica (Oxford, 1994), p. 324.

Moltesen, M., Greece in the Classical Period: Catalogue, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen, 1995), p. 83.

Scholl, Andreas. Die attischen Bildfeldstelen des 4. Jhs. V. Chr: Untersuchungen zu den Kleiformatigen Grabreliefs im spätklassischen Athen. (Berlin: Mann, 1996), pp. 194n1286, 198n1312, 341, no. 444.

Miller, M.C., Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C.: A Study in Cultural Receptivity (New York: 1997), p. 169, fig. 90.

Bodel, John, and Stephen Tracy. Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA: A Checklist (New York: American Academy in Rome, 1997), p. 6.

Babler, B., Fleibige Thrakerinnen und wehrhafte Skythen: Nichtgriechen im klassichen Athen und ihre archaologische Hinterlassenschaft (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1998), pp. 27-32.

Grossman, Janet Burnett. Greek Funerary Sculpture: Catalogue of the Collections at the Getty Villa (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2001), pp. 12-14, cat. no. 3.

Grossman, Janet Burnett. Looking at Greek and Roman Sculpture in Stone (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003), pp. 31, 60, ill.

Vizyēnos, Ourania. Ευρετήρια του βιβλίου του Alexander Conze Die attischen Grabreliefs (Berlin 1893-1922). Αρχείον των Mνημείων των Αθηνών και της Αττικής 4. (Athens: Archaiologikē Hetaireia, 2007), p. 280, no. 2278.

Lee, Mireille M. Body, Dress, and Identity in Ancient Greece (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 123, fig. 4.24.

Brøns, Cecilie. Gods and Garments. Textiles in Greek Sanctuaries in the 7th to the 1st Centuries BC. (Oxford and Philadelphhia: Oxbow Books, 2017), pp. 61-62, fig. 7.

Margariti, Katia. "Lament and Death instead of Marriage: The Iconography of Deceased Maidens on Attic Grave Reliefs of the Classical Period." Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol. 87, No. 1 (January-March 2018), pp. 91-176, 136, no.34.