The Tomb of the Diver

8/24/2023

Following a Train of Thought.

The Cup of Nestor ©lesliepetersonsapp

My new piece, The Tomb of the Diver, is a sort of “spin off” from my last piece, The Cup of Nestor, seen here.

In The Cup of Nestor, I layered different images and text to create a narrative through space and time.

To see and read more about The Cup of Nestor, click here.

In that piece, I utilized in image of a male couple, enjoying a classical Greek symposium. If you were to google the term “Greek symposium” right now, it is likely this image would come up on your screen. It is a scene is from The Tomb of the Diver.

I became fascinated by the archeological find this image came from, and felt moved to create an entirely new artwork based on it.

The Tomb

The Tomb of the Diver was built about 470 BCE, in what is now southern Italy. It was at that time a Greek colony, situated very close to the land of the Etruscans. (Fun fact: “Tuscany” derives from the word “Etruscan”)

Influence from the Etruscans.

During that era, the Etruscans had a marvelous funerary tradition that entailed building large, gorgeous, semi-submerged tombs. They were like little underground houses, large enough to move around in, with pitched ceilings, and limestone walls. Along with statuary and other votive offerings, they painted amazing frescos on the ceilings and walls.

The Tomb of the Leopards

The paintings were scenes of an idyllic afterlife, which reflected the many wonderful sensual pleasures that life can offer, now known as la dolce vita.

In these tombs, the afterlife is a place of beauty where one can eat, drink, dance, hunt, and fish, all the while surrounded by glorious birds, regal animals, and good friends.

The Tomb of Hunting & Fishing

Greek Tomb in an Etruscan Land

The Tomb of the Diver is definitely not an Etruscan tomb. For one thing, it is small, about the size of a coffin. But the influence of the Etruscans is undeniable. In this tomb, la dolce vita is the scene of a Greek symposium.

The tomb is made up of limestone slabs, consisting of four walls and a lid.

The Tomb of the Diver, its four walls and lid.

The four sides depict an idyllic world of beautiful men, laid out on their fancy couches, drinking, talking, flirting, playing music and reciting poetry. The only female present is a small slave girl, playing an aulos, or a double flute.

But the cover of the tomb, the lid, is a different atmosphere altogether.

A solitary young man, his beard just beginning to grow, is diving from a platform into sea-green waves of water.

The contrast between the sides and the lid of the tomb is enthralling to me. The sides are a pageant of activity. The atmosphere in the lid is utterly still.

There has been much speculation about what this dive symbolizes. Like Mona Lisa’s smile, it’s a beautiful, enigmatic image that compels one to ponder.

The Element of Sound

For me, the element of sound is part of the effect. You can almost hear the party going on. Along with the girl sounding the aulos, the men are talking and singing. One plays another aulos, and two have chelyes, or tortoiseshell lyres (more on this below.)

But then, on the lid, in the center of the action, if you will, there is complete silence.

Those of us who have ever had the experience of jumping off a cliff into a body of water, know that the span of time between when your feet leave the rock and when they finally hit the water is an eternity - and silence reigns.

The Grave Goods

There is no floor in the tomb, but the body was laid directly on the earth. Because of this, the deterioration of the body was nearly complete, with only a few bits of bone remaining.

Interred with the body were a few objects; two aryballoi (small vessel for oil,) a lekythos (a different type of vessel for oil,) and the remnant of a tortoise shell.

This is an image of a tortoise shell found in an ancient grave of a woman in northern Israel.

Photo credit: Naftali Hilger

Lyre, British Museum

The tortoise shell was used as the soundbox for a lyre, called a chelys.

This chelys was restored from remains found in Athens, and is now housed at the British Museum.

Again, the element of sound is pronounced.

The Diver

There is something especially sad when somebody young dies, and from what I understand, in ancient Greece it was considered particularly tragic. Moreover, physical beauty was considered sacred in ancient Greece.

From the imagery and the grave goods, we can surmise the person in this tomb was a young man who loved symposiums, who loved other men, played the lyre, and maybe even was a diver.

We can imagine that he was high-status, that he was athletic, that he was considered beautiful, and that he died tragically young. The scenes on the sides of the tomb depict where he hopes he’ll be in the afterlife.

An Amalgam of Elements

In my piece, I’ve attempted to synthesize different aspects of the tomb in space and time.

I began with emulating the shape of the tomb lid (a rectangle composed of two squares,) but I changed the orientation of the image from horizontal to vertical, to capture the downward movement of the dive, and to help us imagine it as a bed, or a coffin, or something else we might lie on, or in.

The actual tomb lid has a tremendous crack running diagonally through it, which I re-conceptualized by tearing the paper I was drawing on diagonally. I then mounted the paper on the rectangular panel. I also tore the edges of the paper to emulate the irregular edges of the lid.

On small, separate panels, I painted the symposium scenes from the four sides of the tomb, and adhered them to the top and bottom areas of the panel.

Below all this liveliness, I scribbled what I imagined the remnants of the chelys may have looked like when they found it in the dirt. I used dark charcoal, dry pigment, and even sand.

Borrowed Imagery

Thomas Molyneux

Expanding upon the element of sound, I introduced a 1703 rendition of a cheyls by Thomas Molyneux. This elegant, scientific etching is a product of The Age of Reason, where, for the first time, academics became interested in the past, and in ancient Greece in particular. Like a double reflection, I am looking at the past, and also looking at how people in the past looked at the past. It is another “layer” in time.

This image is used two times, in very different ways.

First, the small parchment-like transfer on the right.

Then, in delicate, transparent black and white, it spans the upper area, co-mingling with the upper symposium scenes.

After struggling with the lower area for a while, I added a third iteration of a chelys. It hovers over the dark, earthy tortoiseshell drawing, in delicate white lines. It is accompanied by an image transfer of Apollo holding a chelys, pouring out a libation.

A Little Help From My Friends

At first, I tried to keep the basic composition of the original tomb lid. But after layering all these other elements onto the panel, the figure of the diver had become puny and odd-looking. The different elements of the piece were isolated from one another, with no sense of harmony. Most of all, it didn’t give me the feeling I wanted.

With a little help from my friends (thanks Kelly, Beth, Elana, Lisa, and Karen!) I realized I was too enmeshed with the original imagery, and had to break free.

This is when the Diver arose to the foreground.

Using bold, loose mark-making with charcoal, I sketched out his body. I also felt the urge to use dry pigment, applied with my fingers. I used molding paste (acrylic medium mixed with marble dust) to white out the unwanted elements, which left sketch marks and increased dynamism.

He is the central element that ties all the pieces together. He is like a specter, hovering over the tableau. When I look at it, my eye travels over the piece in a figure 8 motion. A figure 8 tipped on its side is the symbol of eternity.

The very last thing I included is an image transfer of an actual passage from my journal, inspired by my feelings about this piece.

It reads:

La Dolce Vita

The more I explore my fascination with archeology, and produce artwork about it, the more I realize that ultimately this art is about death. Not just because so many finds are tombs, burial mounds, and human remains, but because it is essentially about the passage of time. Time slipping away, and how we, in the present ponder what remains.

The wonder of The Tomb of the Diver is its uniqueness, its artistry. Someone* decided to interposed these two contrasting scenes to such great effect. The boisterous party, and the silent dive into the unknown, watery depths, reminds us to engage fully with life, la dolce vita.

Beautiful Video of The Tomb of the Diver

For a beautiful video about The Tomb of the Diver, click on this link. At 15 minutes long, it is a very worthy use of your time!

Symposium "Stock Images"

* Actually, it has been determined the Tomb was painted by two individuals, one more skilled than the other. And fascinatingly, the figures are “stock images” that have been found in almost exact replica on various pieces of pottery, scattered all around the Greek territories. Nevertheless, it took an individual artist to decide how to combine these figures to create this rich narrative.

You can read about The Tomb of the Diver in more depth by clicking here.

2 Comments