Arc of a Diver

A couple of millennia before Steve Winwood released his monumental second album in 1980, the Greeks were also depicting the male form diving from the top of a series of blocks into a pool. This fresco is one of a collection in the museum at Paestum, Italy, having been unearthed 1.5km south of the three massive Ancient Greek temples that still stand there today. This painting was the underside of the top slab from what became known as 'The Tomb of the Diver', dating from approximately 470BC. Discovered in 1968, it appears to be the only example of Greek painting with figured scenes dating from the Orientalizing, Archaic, or Classical periods to have survived in its entirety. Among the thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700–400 BC), this is the only one to have been decorated with frescoes of human subjects. While contemplating whether to record this image, I did think "When you see a chance, take it"!... Apologies.

Image dimensions: 3402 x 2222 pixels