Etruscan - Relief from a Funerary Cippus - Walters 2313

On this relief from a funerary cippus (monument), a man holding a lyre stands between two dancing women. Such pyramidal monuments are typical of the region around Chiusi and depict the dances that took place during the ritual funerary banquet. These reliefs evoke the elaborate wall-paintings of dancers found in such celebrated Etruscan tombs as the "Tomb of the Leopards" in Tarquinia and were influenced by contemporary Greek vase-paintings.