Vergina

Among the many discoveries made by Manolis Andronikos of the University of Thessaloniki at Vergina, ancient Aegai, an early capital of Macedonia, the most spectacular were three royal tombs dated to 350—300 BC. Two of them, Tombs II and III, were found intact. Andronikos assigned Tomb II to PhTip II. Evidence for this attribution is strong. Greaves (metal shin guards) of different lengths recall Philip’s lameness. A tiny ivory portrait shows a man with only one good eye, which was the case for Philip; this distinctive characteristic is, moreover, a feature of the skull found in the tomb, as a forensic reconstruction of the skull has revealed. Tomb III may well belong to Alexander IV, the posthumous son of Alexander the Great, but the occupant of the other tomb is unknown.

The tombs were built of masonry and then hidden, buried beneath a broad low tumulus. In plan they are simple: Tomb I has one small room only, without a doorway; Tombs II and III consist of an antechamber and main room behind, both rooms barrel vaulted. Tomb II, the largest of these tombs, measures 4.46m wide by 9.50m deep. Its facade resembles the short end of a Doric order temple, with a two half-columns, an architrave, a triglyph and metope frieze, and above, a horizontal frieze panel painted with a hunting scene.

Tomb I, discovered robbed, was nonetheless decorated with a wall painting quickly hailed as one of the most important finds of Greek art in modern times. On the north wall in a space measuring 3.5m x 1.0m, Hades has seized Persephone and is carrying her off in his chariot. The colors are white, yellow, and purple. The drama of the composition, the quick, impressionistic brushwork, and the use of light and shadow to create volume make for a picture much more nuanced and expressive than the relatively stiff drawings on Attic black and red-figure pottery. This wall painting fulfills all expectations we have about the quality of monumental Greek painting, an art highly esteemed by the ancients, but which has almost entirely disappeared.