AN EAST GREEK MARBLE KOUROS

ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 550-525 B.C.

Details

AN EAST GREEK MARBLE KOUROS
ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 550-525 B.C.
Standing with his left leg advanced, the arms originally lowered and likely projecting forward from the elbows, wearing a chiton and a himation, the chiton with crinkly vertical folds visible on the right breast and along the left side, the himation draped over his left shoulder, looped below the right arm, wrapped tightly around his body, and then tossed over his left shoulder, with thick diagonal folds along the upper edge and heavy vertical folds falling from the left shoulder in front and back, the form of his muscular body, especially the pronounced buttocks, visible below the drapery and accented by the broad U-shaped folds of the himation, with beaded tresses of hair falling in back along the shoulders
30 in. (76.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Belgian Art Market, 1986.
Anonymous sale; Gorny & Mosch, Munich, 21 June 2005, lot 90.

Lot Essay

During the Archaic Period, most large-scale statues of standing youths, or kouroi, were depicted nude. The draped kouros as a type, according to Ridgway (The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture, p. 75), is found almost exclusively in Asia Minor and Samos, with one example from the Athenian Acropolis and one from Sicily. More commonly, draped male figures are seated or carry an offering. The quality of the drapery of the present example is far superior to most of the standing figures known. See for example the kouros from Samos, no. 84 in Boardman, Greek Sculpture, The Archaic Period, and the kouros with a dedicatory inscription for Dionysermos, now in Paris, thought to be from Miletos or Samos, no. 51 in Hamiaux, Les Sculptures Grecques. For the draped kouros from Syracuse, see pl. 13-14 in Ridgeway, op. cit., and for the example from the Acropolis see pl. 102 in Payne, Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis.

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