Peplos Kore
Title
Peplos Kore
Date
Archaic Period, ca. 530 B.C.E
Artist or Workshop
Unknown
Materials
Parian marble, paint
Height of the work
118 cm tall
Provenience
The Acropolis (Athens, Greece)
Current Location
The Acropolis Museum, Athens
Description and Significance
Description:
The Peplos Kore is roughly four feet tall and represents a standing female figure in antiquity. She is wearing a peplos in addition to sporting a chiton underneath. Her peplos depicts traces of geometric decorations starting from her waist and trailing down towards her ankles. She has long, stylized curls stemming from her scalp that create a rippling pattern along her chest and head; these curls are strewn to the sides of her breasts, just below the shoulders. Her face would have been more complexly painted, but only the red hues of her hair and eyes have survived the test of time. There are also holes in the lobes of her ears, suggesting that she was once decorated with bronze earrings. She also wears an archaic smile upon her face. In addition to her facial expression, the sculptor has indicated not only her breasts and waist, but also a subtle sense of her legs underneath her peplos. Her breasts are slightly accentuated, conveying emerging sexuality. Her right hand appears to have a hole drilled in a manner that would allow something to fit through it. Finally, the statue has no feet and is connected to a flat, marble base.
Significance:
Kore statues were generally believed to serve as grave markers for the recently deceased or votive offerings for the gods. She is the counterpart to the male kouros, who is always depicted nude. Moreover, the Peplos Kore exhibits a wealth of individualizing features that help identify her as a portrait. One of these features is exemplified with her eyes, which appear red; however, the red in her irises should not be regarded as intentional, since red was often the remains of a mixture of hues in antiquity. In this instance, red could have been originally combined to make many other colors (such as brown). More often than not, statues that were represented with red eyes were usually paired with red hair, as seen with the Peplos Kore. Unlike the eyes, some of the color representations of the hair in korai may have been true indications of the color and style worn by women in antiquity. Additionally, the texture, density, and lack of a tangible hairline suggest that women may have worn wigs to show off particular curls, crimps, colors, and braids. The Peplos Kore also wears an archaic smile, a feature prevalent throughout Ancient Greek portraiture that bestows a combination of happiness, vigor, and seductiveness on the statue. This individualizing feature of seductiveness is further explored in the statue’s peplos, which conforms to her body and highlights her breasts and slim physique. This could be a sign of emerging sexuality or ideal feminine qualities that viewers may have admired women for in Ancient Greece. Her drapery also shows signs of once being decorated with intricate, polychrome patterns, which may showcase the aesthetics that the Greeks valued in female portraiture. Art historians at Cambridge University have even reconstructed the Peplos Kore in such a way to further highlight these colorful and decorated patterns, showcasing how she may have been viewed in antiquity rather than depicting her as a “pure white” statue.
Furthermore, since the Peplos Kore is wearing such an unusual garment that is similar to a goddess’s attire, it has opened up recent conjectures that believe she may not be a depiction of a young woman at all, but rather a representation of a goddess. Since she was found on the Acropolis, some art historians think that she was originally portrayed as the goddess Athena, but other analyses lean towards the notion that she was once Artemis, goddess of the hunt. This is frustrating for scholars since they do not have the left arm to conclude what the statue was once carrying, but the hole drilled in the right hand could easily have held an arrow. Recreations of the statue have been done in multiple different fashions, some depicting the statue as Artemis with bow and arrow in hand and others as the goddess Athena. Additionally, the smile on the statue does not necessarily portray happiness, but rather a sense of transcendence; this is an emotion that does not correlate with any recognizable human experience and evokes a sense of not engaging in the world of difficulty, but somehow rising above it.
Most historians will not argue that she is significant because she has survived for all these years; however, the Peplos Kore’s significance extends far deeper than it just being one of the few surviving statues of the Archaic Period. The mystery surrounding a scholar’s inability to determine the statue’s identity is what truly makes it a significant part of ancient Greek history. These historians often revel in the most trivial revelations regarding the smallest truths deduced from the artifacts they study. This signals a victory of order over uncertainty for the modern scholar, but often times the impulse to ascertain mastery over our world becomes impossible when pieces of the statue (or history) are missing. The ability to embrace the full mystery of the Peplos Kore’s original purpose is what makes it so alluring to scholars, and that is particularly why it is so important to this day.
The Peplos Kore is roughly four feet tall and represents a standing female figure in antiquity. She is wearing a peplos in addition to sporting a chiton underneath. Her peplos depicts traces of geometric decorations starting from her waist and trailing down towards her ankles. She has long, stylized curls stemming from her scalp that create a rippling pattern along her chest and head; these curls are strewn to the sides of her breasts, just below the shoulders. Her face would have been more complexly painted, but only the red hues of her hair and eyes have survived the test of time. There are also holes in the lobes of her ears, suggesting that she was once decorated with bronze earrings. She also wears an archaic smile upon her face. In addition to her facial expression, the sculptor has indicated not only her breasts and waist, but also a subtle sense of her legs underneath her peplos. Her breasts are slightly accentuated, conveying emerging sexuality. Her right hand appears to have a hole drilled in a manner that would allow something to fit through it. Finally, the statue has no feet and is connected to a flat, marble base.
Significance:
Kore statues were generally believed to serve as grave markers for the recently deceased or votive offerings for the gods. She is the counterpart to the male kouros, who is always depicted nude. Moreover, the Peplos Kore exhibits a wealth of individualizing features that help identify her as a portrait. One of these features is exemplified with her eyes, which appear red; however, the red in her irises should not be regarded as intentional, since red was often the remains of a mixture of hues in antiquity. In this instance, red could have been originally combined to make many other colors (such as brown). More often than not, statues that were represented with red eyes were usually paired with red hair, as seen with the Peplos Kore. Unlike the eyes, some of the color representations of the hair in korai may have been true indications of the color and style worn by women in antiquity. Additionally, the texture, density, and lack of a tangible hairline suggest that women may have worn wigs to show off particular curls, crimps, colors, and braids. The Peplos Kore also wears an archaic smile, a feature prevalent throughout Ancient Greek portraiture that bestows a combination of happiness, vigor, and seductiveness on the statue. This individualizing feature of seductiveness is further explored in the statue’s peplos, which conforms to her body and highlights her breasts and slim physique. This could be a sign of emerging sexuality or ideal feminine qualities that viewers may have admired women for in Ancient Greece. Her drapery also shows signs of once being decorated with intricate, polychrome patterns, which may showcase the aesthetics that the Greeks valued in female portraiture. Art historians at Cambridge University have even reconstructed the Peplos Kore in such a way to further highlight these colorful and decorated patterns, showcasing how she may have been viewed in antiquity rather than depicting her as a “pure white” statue.
Furthermore, since the Peplos Kore is wearing such an unusual garment that is similar to a goddess’s attire, it has opened up recent conjectures that believe she may not be a depiction of a young woman at all, but rather a representation of a goddess. Since she was found on the Acropolis, some art historians think that she was originally portrayed as the goddess Athena, but other analyses lean towards the notion that she was once Artemis, goddess of the hunt. This is frustrating for scholars since they do not have the left arm to conclude what the statue was once carrying, but the hole drilled in the right hand could easily have held an arrow. Recreations of the statue have been done in multiple different fashions, some depicting the statue as Artemis with bow and arrow in hand and others as the goddess Athena. Additionally, the smile on the statue does not necessarily portray happiness, but rather a sense of transcendence; this is an emotion that does not correlate with any recognizable human experience and evokes a sense of not engaging in the world of difficulty, but somehow rising above it.
Most historians will not argue that she is significant because she has survived for all these years; however, the Peplos Kore’s significance extends far deeper than it just being one of the few surviving statues of the Archaic Period. The mystery surrounding a scholar’s inability to determine the statue’s identity is what truly makes it a significant part of ancient Greek history. These historians often revel in the most trivial revelations regarding the smallest truths deduced from the artifacts they study. This signals a victory of order over uncertainty for the modern scholar, but often times the impulse to ascertain mastery over our world becomes impossible when pieces of the statue (or history) are missing. The ability to embrace the full mystery of the Peplos Kore’s original purpose is what makes it so alluring to scholars, and that is particularly why it is so important to this day.
References
Khan Academy website: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/greek-art/daedalic-archaic/v/peplos-kore
Stieber, Mary. “Chapter 2.” Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. Austin: University of Texas, 2004. 42-82. Print.
University of Cambridge website: http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/museum/collections/peplos-kore
Stieber, Mary. “Chapter 2.” Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. Austin: University of Texas, 2004. 42-82. Print.
University of Cambridge website: http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/museum/collections/peplos-kore
Contributor
Ryan Tetter
Files
Citation
Unknown, “Peplos Kore,” Digital Portrait "Basket" - ARTH488A "Ancient Mediterranean Portraiture", accessed May 1, 2024, http://classicalchopped.artinterp.org/omeka/items/show/21.
Item Relations
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