The large, grave statue of a youth from Attica known as the Munich Kouros is located in the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany, under inventory number 169. The Kouros was acquired by the Glyptothek in 1910. [1]
The large, grave statue of a youth from Attica known as the Munich Kouros is located in the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany, under inventory number 169. The Kouros was acquired by the Glyptothek in 1910. [1]
The Munich kouros is one of the earliest examples of the Ptoon 12 group, and therefore dates to around a decade before the creation of the Siphnian Treasury frieze in 525 BC. [2] It originally stood in Athens, but was taken down and buried relatively soon after – perhaps in 480 BC by the Persian army during the destruction of Athens. [3] After its rediscovery, it was acquired in 1910 by the Munich Glyptothek. [3]
The Munich kouros is made of Parian marble, and is 2.08 metres high (2.11 m including the plinth). [1] The surface of the stone has been stained red-brown from being buried in iron-rich soil. [3] The statue with its heavy proportions and the short hair portrays an athletic ideal. [4]
The face is full and round-oval, and in the side view it reaches a depth unknown in older statues. The archaic smile typical of statues of the time, plays around the lips. The eyes are almond-shaped and, in contrast to older statues, the ears are realistically reproduced.[ citation needed ] The face is framed by three-dimensional, hanging spiral curls that split over the middle of the forehead, unlike earlier kouroi which have shoulder-length hair. [4]
The broad shoulders are on the same level. The freely worked out arms hang down parallel to the body, the forearms are angled slightly forward, the hands clenched into fists. Only in the area of the inside of the fist were the forearms connected to the body by means of small marble bridges. The treatment of the back, with its schematic furrows which indicate different muscle parts running from the backbone to the flanks as well as the shoulder blades, is based on older models.[ citation needed ]
The left leg is placed forward, the right step back slightly, without reproducing a motive for movement. The position of the legs hardly affects the design of the pelvis, which only imperceptibly indicates that the left side is raised or the right is lowered.[ citation needed ]
Due to its stylistic features, the kouros is dated around 540–30 BC. He is close to the Kroisos Kouros, who also comes from Attica.[ citation needed ]
Kouros is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less frequent presence in many other Ancient Greek territories such as Sicily. Such statues are found across the Greek-speaking world; the preponderance of these were found in sanctuaries of Apollo with more than one hundred from the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoion, Boeotia, alone. These free-standing sculptures were typically marble, but the form is also rendered in limestone, wood, bronze, ivory and terracotta. They are typically life-sized, though early colossal examples are up to 3 meters tall.
The Glyptothek is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Greek and Roman sculptures. It was designed by Leo von Klenze in the neoclassical style, and built from 1816 to 1830. Today the museum is a part of the Kunstareal.
The sculpture of ancient Greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient Greek art as, with the exception of painted ancient Greek pottery, almost no ancient Greek painting survives. Modern scholarship identifies three major stages in monumental sculpture in bronze and stone: the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. At all periods there were great numbers of Greek terracotta figurines and small sculptures in metal and other materials.
Classical sculpture refers generally to sculpture from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, as well as the Hellenized and Romanized civilizations under their rule or influence, from about 500 BC to around 200 AD. It may also refer more precisely a period within Ancient Greek sculpture from around 500 BC to the onset of the Hellenistic style around 323 BC, in this case usually given a capital "C". The term "classical" is also widely used for a stylistic tendency in later sculpture, not restricted to works in a Neoclassical or classical style.
The Kroisos Kouros is a marble kouros from Anavyssos (Ανάβυσσος) in Attica which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroisos (Κροῖσος).
The so-called Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis is the head of a lost marble statue of a young man of ca 480 BC, in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. The head and part of the pelvis were found in 1923 northeast of the museum site on the Acropolis of Athens. It belongs to the late archaic or early classical period. The curly hair points more to the Archaic than the Classical period.
The marble Kritios Boy or Kritian Boy belongs to the Early Classical period of ancient Greek sculpture. It is the first statue from classical antiquity known to use contrapposto; Kenneth Clark called it "the first beautiful nude in art" The Kritios Boy is thus named because it is attributed, on slender evidence, to Kritios, who worked together with Nesiotes or their school, from around 480 BC. As currently mounted, the statue is considerably smaller than life-size at 117 cm, including the supports that replace the missing feet.
Eirene or Irene, more commonly known in English as Peace, is one of the Horae, the personification and goddess of peace in Greek mythology and ancient religion. She was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a cornucopia, sceptre, and a torch or rhyton. She is usually said to be the daughter of Zeus and Themis and thus sister of Dike and Eunomia. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Pax.
Moschophoros is an ancient Greek statue of the Archaic period, also known in English as The Calf Bearer. It was excavated in fragments in the Perserschutt on the Acropolis of Athens in 1864. The statue, dated c. 560 BC and estimated to have originally measured 1.65 meters (5.4 ft) in height, is now in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.
The Getty kouros is an over-life-sized statue in the form of a late archaic Greek kouros. The dolomitic marble sculpture was bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, in 1985 for ten million dollars and first exhibited there in October 1986.
Kleobis (Cleobis) and Biton are two Archaic Greek Kouros brothers from Argos, whose stories date back to about 580 BCE. Two statues, discovered in Delphi, represent them.
Gods in Color or Gods in Colour (original title in German: Bunte Götter – Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur is a travelling exhibition of varying format and extent that has been shown in multiple cities worldwide. Its subject is ancient polychromy, i.e. the original, brightly painted, appearance of ancient sculpture and architecture.
The Sounion Kouros is an early archaic Greek statue of a naked young man or kouros carved in marble from the island of Naxos around 600 BCE. It is one of the earliest examples that scholars have of the kouros-type which functioned as votive offerings to gods or demi-gods, and were dedicated to heroes. Found near the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, this kouros was found badly damaged and heavily weathered. It was restored to its original height of 3.05 meters (10.0 ft) returning it to its larger than life size. It is now held by the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The Peplos Kore is an ancient sculpture from the Acropolis of Athens. It is considered one of the best-known examples of Archaic Greek art. Kore is a type of archaic Greek statue that portrays a young woman with a stiff posture looking straight forward. Although this statue is one of the most famous examples of a kore, it is actually not considered a typical one. The statue is not completely straight, her face is leaned slightly to the side, and she is standing with her weight shifted to one leg. The other part of the statue's name, peplos, is based on the popular archaic Greek gown for women. When the statue was found it was initially thought that she was wearing a peplos, although it is now known that she is not.
The Old Drunkard is a female seated statue from the Hellenistic period, which survives in two Roman marble copies. The original was probably also made of marble. This genre sculpture is notable for its stark realism.
The Stele of Aristion dates from around 510 BC. It was created by sculptor Aristokles out of Pentelic marble and shows traces of polychrome. It was found at Velanideza near Marathon in Attica.
The Kouros of Apollonas, also called the Colossus of Dionysus, is a 10.7 metre tall unfinished statue of light grey Naxian marble with a weight of around 80 tonnes. It is located in an ancient quarry near Apollonas, a small town in the northern part of Naxos, one of the Cycladic Islands in the Aegean Sea. The statue is a kouros dating from Archaic period of Ancient Greece, around the turn of the seventh and sixth centuries BC.
The New York Kouros is an early example of life-sized statuary in Greece. The marble statue of a Greek youth, kouros, was carved in Attica, has an Egyptian pose, and is otherwise separated from the block of stone. It is named for its current location, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Metropolitan Museum of Art said in "Marble statue of a kouros (youth)" that "The statue marked the grave of a young Athenian aristocrat."
The Sabouroff head is a Late Archaic Greek marble sculpture. It is dated to c. 550–525 BC. This head of a Kouros was named after Peter Alexandrovich Saburov, a collector of ancient Greek sculpture and antiquities. It is 23 centimeters in height. The sculpture is currently located in the Antikensammlung Berlin and allegedly from Attica or Aegina. There are conjectures that it may also have been from Caria in Asia Minor.
The Euthydikos Kore is a late archaic, Parian marble statue of the kore type, c 490–480 BCE, that once stood amongst the Akropolis votive sculptures. It was destroyed during the Persian invasion of 480 BCE and found in the Perserschutt. It is named after the dedication on the base of the sculpture, “Euthydikos son of Thaliarchos dedicated [me]”. It now stands in the Acropolis Museum.
