Statue of a Kore. The "Kore from Chios"
Inventory number
Ακρ. 675
Artist
Attic workshop (?)
Category
Sculpture
Period
Archaic Period
Date
Around 510 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.545 m
Material
Marble from Paros
Location
Archaic Acropolis Gallery
Despite her small stature, this is one of the most impressive Korai from the Acropolis. Her head was found in 1886 east of the Parthenon, and her body in 1888 south of the temple. She has been reassembled out of three pieces but a big part of the statue’s extremities has been lost. She is known with the conventional name “Kore from Chios” since the workmanship strongly resembles that of the sculptures produced at the island of Chios. According to an older theory, which has been discredited today, she was associated with a statue base bearing the signature of a Chian artist. The absence of sculpted details on her backside might suggest that, she was set up in a niche or in front of a wall on the Acropolis.
The Kore is clad in a long chiton with sleeves, which was blue on the upper part, white on the lower and fastened around the waist with a red belt. Over the chiton she wears a short himation which passes obliquely under her left arm while secured on the right with red buttons. Her garments are richly decorated with elaborate red and light-blue painted motifs such as stripes, rosettes, meanders and spirals. Today all those colours are oxidised.
In her right hand she would have held her offering to the goddess, while with her left she was likely pulling aside her chiton to facilitate her step. Her long hair falls on her back while three curled locks frame each side of her face and spill to the front. The traces of reddish colour retained on the hair, perhaps constitutes the undercoat over which the final light-brownish hue was applied. On her head the Kore wears a richly decorated stephane with pale blue and red palmettes, white blossoms and spirals. Seventeen drilled holes on the stephane’s upper surface were probably used to adjust additional metal ornaments, perhaps adorned with blossoms. She wears earrings decorated with white spirals on a light-blue background and two necklaces, one of which was made of metal and fitted on the statue. The Kore’s features were originally highlighted with colour; pale pink for skin, brown for the irises, eyelashes and eyebrows and red for the lips.
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