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Top half of a kore holding a Pomegranate

Collection: Athens, Acropolis Museum
Title: Naxian kore
Context: From Athens, Acropolis
Findspot: Found at Athens, Acropolis (found in 1886 W of the Erechtheion).
Summary: Head and upper torso of a kore holding fruit to her chest
Object Function: Votive?
Material: Marble
Sculpture Type: Free-standing statue: kore
Category: Separated fragments
Style: High Archaic
Technique: In-the-round
Original or Copy: Original
Date: ca. 560 BC
Dimensions: H. 0.535 m
Scale: Slightly under life-size
Region: Attica
Period: High Archaic


Subject Description: This kore seems to have held her right arm directly at her side and bent her left arm. She holds her left hand held in front of her chest, grasping a piece of fruit (an apple or a pomegranate). She wears a himation buttoned on her right shoulder and draped diagonally across her upper chest, over a thin chiton arranged in very narrow pleats. Both garments adhere closely to the shape of her body. Her hair, which is adorned with a stephane, is divided by a center part, tucked behind her ears, and falls unnaturally behind her shoulders in a heavy mass, divided into rectangular locks that are indicated by incised lines. Her neck is thick and her face is oval, with a broad chin. She stares ahead with wide opened, triangular eyes, with heavy lids and arched eyebrows, and holds her narrow lips in a tight, unsmiling exrpression.

Form & Style: The technique and style of dress of this kore are quite similar to another one from the Acropolis, Athens, Acropolis 619.

Condition: Fragmentary

Condition Description: Several fragments have been rejoined to form most of the statue above the waist, missing large portions of the left arm and some of the neck, which have been restored. The front is chipped, particularly on the breasts, the left index finger, the chin, left cheek, nose, and right eye.

Material Description: Coarse-grained (Naxian?) marble

Sources Used: Brouskari 1974, 50, fig. 91

Other Bibliography: Lullies & Hirmer, no. 27; Richter 1968, 47 no. 59, figs. 198-200; Lippold 1950, 44 n. 2; Langlotz in Langlotz & Schrader 1939, 64-65 no. 23, pl. 34; Payne 1936, 12, pls. 18-19