ALT TERRACOTTA CINERARY URN FROM TUSCANIA, LATE C3 BCE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This spectacular polychrome terracotta cinerary urn depicts Adonis dying on a draped couch, a mortal wound visible on his left thigh, while a hunting dog licks its own wound at the base. It reflects a Hellenistic trend in Tuscania where workshops used moulds to produce these urns in series. Portraying the deceased as a dying hero was highly fashionable. The ashes inside might have belonged to a youth who died tragically young, but Etruscan funerary art frequently heroicised the dead, so it could equally hold the remains of an older man projecting an idealised divinised image for eternity. Despite its theatrical beauty and striking pigments, this urn was never meant for public display. It was destined for a tomb, only to be seen by the gods, the ancestors and living relatives during subsequent burials.

ALT FRESCO FROM BOSCOREALE, C1 BCE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI A large Roman fresco from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor set against a brilliant red background. On the left an allegorical female figure representing Macedon sits on a rock wearing a greyish tunic, a purple cloak and a flat Macedonian kausia hat while grasping a tall spear. Between them rests a bronze shield embossed with the Argead star of the Macedonian royal house. On the right a seated woman representing defeated Persia wears a pale gown, a blue mantle and a yellow head wrap. She rests her chin on her hand sadly, looking up to seek female solidarity in the eyes of her captor but finding none. This figure of subjugated Persia may be a portrait of Stateira II, daughter of the defeated Persian King Darius III, taken as a political trophy wife by Alexander the Great. She had ample reason to be dejected, as Alexander's primary romantic devotion was to his companion and cavalry commander Hephaestion.