Attic Kore

Culture: Greek/Attic

Period: 450-440 B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 28 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 2105

Provenance: Collection Professor Hans Erlenmeyer, acquired between 1943 and 1964, as of 1981 Erlenmeyer Trust in Basel. Thence Ariadne Galleries New York, inventory number 1570. Thence collection Dimitri Mayrommatis, Paris.

Condition: Wonderful preserved polychromy and completely intact.

Description: Attic Kore, attributed to the so-called “strict style” due to her straight pose. A belt is fixed under her robe, the cloth of the Doric peplos, the so-called apoptygma, is clearly worked out. Her bare feet standing on the original ancient base. Her arms, hanging straight down next to her body, holding left a phiale and right a fruit. The face is especially delicately worked out, the curly hair appear under the sakkos on her forehead. This large and completely preserved figure is, due to its similarity to sculptures from the Zeus temples in Olympia and to a sculpture head of the Parthenon, around 450-440, to be dated shortly after these examples. Terracottas like this one were used for benediction in a sanctuary or as a precious funerary object. For a very similar example see the British Museum from the collection J.K. Steele (museum number 1926, 1115.4).