"Peplos" Kore

Several times in class this past week we have looked at the “Peplos” Kore statue from the Acropolis in Athens. This female marble figure dates to about 530 BCE which places her before Periclean Athens. The Peplos Kore’s style, which is less stylized than previous and contemporary statues such as the Metopolitan Korous and the Berlin Kore yet not as realistic as later Greek statues, represents a shift in Greek art. The Peplos Kore’s orientalized hair and stark position evoke a memory of the Egyptian art we have seen this semester. We know that Greek art was considerably influenced by the Persians and vice versa. The Peplos Kore seems to be “in between” styles in the sense that she is approaching the Classical style of Periclean Athens. She retains the “Archaic smile” which we have discussed in class, but later we begin to see more naturalistic human emotion on the faces of Greek statues in the Classical period.