Afterlives: Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

This richly illustrated volume presents Greek funerary monuments from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s outstanding collection that offer insight into all facets of life in ancient Greece. In ancient Greece, funerary monuments were visual expressions of mourning that provided the opportunity for the living to commemorate and communicate with the dead. Today they offer a wealth of information about the deceased and the communities of which they were a part, for example, their status, material aspects of their lives, and how they wanted to be depicted. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the finest collections of Greek funerary monuments outside of Greece. This richly illustrated volume, by renowned author Paul Zanker, presents more than 50 outstanding examples, created from the 7th to the 2nd century B.C., that represent a variety of media and geographical regions. Through their shared focus on memorializing the dead, these extraordinary works of art offer insights into all facets of life in ancient Greece.

Paul Zanker is former Dietrich von Bothmer Distinguished Research Scholar in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is the author of numerous publications, including The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus, Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Roman Art: A Guide Through The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Collection.