Among the most accomplished and unique expressions of the craftsmanship of Paestum, the painted tombs were most abundant between the end of the Fifth Century up until the Roman colonization in 273 BCE, during the period of Lucanian domination. Mostly concentrated in the necropoleis closest to the city walls, these burials reflect the changes in the values and models through which the elite chose to represent itself.
This slab from the necropolis of Laghetto (north of Paestum) was part of a box tomb with a double sloping roof dating from the first half of the Fourth Century BCE. It shows a rider with a spear on his left shoulder from which a trophy hangs being welcomed by a woman offering vases for a ritual. The "return of the warrior" theme was particularly popular among patrons, to the point that it is the most widespread representation to adorn the figured slabs from Paestum. This original creation derives from Attic and Italiot models which have been reworked in a more local key, as is clearly visible in the weapons and clothing of the figures.
Between the end of the Fourth Century and the beginning of the Third Century BCE, funerary painting was used almost exclusively in the chamber tombs of the necropolis of Spinazzo, south of the city. The interior surfaces of the tombs were decorated with life-size depictions of processions culminating in a central scene, with the deceased being welcomed by an ancestor into the family pantheon. The genealogy of the ruling classes, rendered in a distinctly Hellenistic style, became a crucial theme on the eve of the advent of Rome.