The Antenor Kore is a Late Archaic statue of a girl (

Kore Kore may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Kore (comics), a comic-book series by Josh Blaylock and Tim Seeley *Kore (producer), French-Algerian music producer, also part of duo Kore & Skalp *Kore (sculpture), a type of ancient Greek sculpture dep ...

) made of

Parian marble Parian marble is a fine-grained semi translucent pure-white and entirely flawless marble quarried during the classical era on the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean Sea. It was highly prized by ancient Greeks for making sculptures. Some of the ...

, which was created around 530/20 BC. The statue was found in several fragments during excavations on the

Athenian Acropolis The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Th ...

in the so-called

Perserschutt The Perserschutt, a German term meaning "Persian debris" or "Persian rubble", refers to the bulk of architectural and votive sculptures that were damaged by the invading Persian army of Xerxes I on the Acropolis of Athens in 480 BC, in the Destruc ...

. The lower part and the left arm were dug up east of the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...

in 1882 and the upper part was discovered west of the

Erechtheion The Erechtheion (latinized as Erechtheum /ɪˈrɛkθiəm, ˌɛrɪkˈθiːəm/; Ancient Greek: Ἐρέχθειον, Greek: Ερέχθειο) or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple-telesterion on the north side of the Acropoli ...

in 1886. Parts of the calf followed. The face is damaged, especially the nose, and the lower right arm is missing, as is the front of the feet on the plinth. The kore was originally located in the Athena sanctuary on the acropolis and is now kept in the

Acropolis Museum The Acropolis Museum ( el, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, ''Mouseio Akropolis'') is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on ...

The statue is 201 cm high, excluding the plinth. The Kore has chest-length hair, which only partially survives. The hair at the front is gathered into tight curls, while the rest of the hair falls in locks, fanning out over the shoulders and back. She wears a crown in her hair. Like all archaic korai, the sculpture has a clear axis and stares directly at the viewer. She wears a

chiton Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora (), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as gumboots or sea cradles or coat-of-mail s ...

and

himation A himation ( grc, ἱμάτιον ) was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods (c. 750–30 BC). It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of ...

. The latter seems to be tied over the left arm, pinned at the top with a

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

and falling below in omega-folds. With the left hand the image gathers the chiton, causing the characteristic drapery. The conspicuously empty eye-holes must have been inlaid with another material, likely glass - a rather rare feature in marble statues of this period. Fragments of a

Pentelic marble Mount Pentelicus or Pentelikon (, or ) is a mountain in Attica, Greece, situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. Its highest point is the peak ''Pyrgari'', with an elevation of 1,109 m. The mountain is covered in large part wi ...

statue base in the form of a capital were found in the Perserschutt in the same excavation as the statue fragments. This base was first connected with the statue by

Franz Studniczka Franz Studniczka (14 August 1860 – 4 December 1929) was a German professor of classical archaeology born in Jasło, Galicia. He studied classical archaeology in Vienna as a pupil of Otto Benndorf (1838–1907). In 1887 he received his habil ...

, a conclusion which has been largely accepted, though some still doubt. An inscription on the base name the donor Nearchos and the sculptor

Antenor __NOTOC__ Antenor ( grc-gre, Ἀντήνωρ, ''Antḗnōr''; BC) was an Ancient Athens, Athenian Ancient Greek sculpture, sculptor. He is recorded as the creator of the Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture), joint statues of the tyrannic ...

son of Eumares. It reads: The surviving grc, ΥΣ at the beginning of the second line is generally restored as grc, κεραμεύς and the donor identified with the attested potter

Nearchos Nearchus or Nearchos ( el, Νέαρχος; – 300 BC) was one of the Greeks, Greek officers, a navarch, in the army of Alexander the Great. He is known for his celebrated expeditionary voyage starting from the Indus river, Indus River, through t ...

from the second quarter of the sixth century BC or with an unknown potter of the same name, perhaps a son or uncle of the known Nearchos. It has sometimes been doubted that a simple artesan could be the donor of such a votive statue and alternative restorations of the inscription have been suggested. On the other hand it was quite possible in the 6th century to gain a significant fortune through craftworks and other donations are known from potters and vase painters on the Acropolis.Ingeborg Scheibler, "Griechische Künstlervotive der archaischen Zeit." In ''Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst.'' Vol. 30, 1979, pp. 7–29.

References

Bibliography

* . ''Dedications from the Athenian Akropolis. A catalogue of the inscriptions of the sixth and fifth centuries B. C.'' Archaeological Institute of America, Cambridge, Mass. 1949, pp. 232–233, no. 197. *

Gisela Richter Gisela Marie Augusta Richter (14 or 15 August 1882 – 24 December 1972) was a classical archaeologist and art historian. She was a prominent figure and an authority in her field. Early life Gisela Richter was born in London, England, the daught ...

. ''Korai. Archaic Greek Maides. A Study of the Development of the Kore Type in Greek Sculpture.'' Phaidon, London 1968, p. 69, no. 110, ill. 336–340. * Katerina Karakasi. ''Archaische Koren''. Hirmer, München 2001, p. 125. 133 tbl. 148–149. 254–256. * Sascha Kansteiner, Lauri Lehmann, Bernd Seidensticker, Klaus Stemmer (edd.): ''Text und Skulptur. Berühmte Bildhauer und Bronzegiesser der Antike in Wort und Bild.'' De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2009, , pp. 5–7
Google Books
. * ''TonArt. Virtuosität antiker Töpfertechnik.'' Imhoff, Petersberg 2010, , p. 126–127 no. 92.

External links

{{commonscat, Antenor Kore

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