Orestes and Electra

myminifactory

The scene unfolds between two figures: a woman holding a boy with all the love in her heart. A sculptural group depicts Agamemnon's children standing before their father's tomb, an interpretation initially proposed by Winckelmann in the 18th century and now widely accepted for similar farewell scenes found on attic funerary stelae from the 4th century BC. The somber atmosphere is heightened by the woman's shorn locks with short curls, a clear indication of mourning. To the left of the boy's leg lies a stele inscribed in Greek, boasting the sculptor's signature: "Menealaos, student of Stephanos, has created this work." This suggests that the statue was crafted between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD. Traces of the original color remain on the lower part of Electra's dress and her hairstyle. The sixteenth-century restoration of certain parts of the statue is attributed to Ippolito Buzio.