...of a stele

She leads him to a large, flat slab propped up against the wall. On it, a coloured vignette shows a man seated, in profile, at a table piled high with food. At his feet a dog lounges; musicians, acrobats and dancers entertain him; beneath him servants and craftsmen labour - bakers, perhaps, retrieving loaves from ovens, or perhaps carpenters sawing at waist-high beams, masons chipping and hammering at stone or butchers hacking away at meat; around them, further from the picture's central hearth, men work the fields and fish the marshes. All these figures - entertainers, tradesman, farmers, pet - are drawn, like the main character, in profile. They interact with one another, and seem to be exchanging words - but in a silent, gestural language only.

[C, McCarthy, T.]