Marble head of a kouros (youth)
East Greek, around 550 BC
Found at Didyma, modern Turkey
Two of the most distinctive forms of free-standing sculpture to
emerge during the Archaic period of Greek art (about 600-480 BC)
were statues of youths (kouroi) and maidens
(korai). The male figures, usually in the form of naked
young men, acted both as grave markers and as votive offerings, the
latter perhaps intended to be representations of the dedicator. The
female figures served similar functions, but differed from their
male counterparts in that they were elaborately draped.
Inscriptions sometimes survive along with the statues, and mention
the names of the subjects. However they are not true portraits, but
generic types created to represent young men and women.
Most of the Archaic sculpture in The British Museum was
discovered in the eastern Aegean islands and in sanctuaries in
western Turkey, and therefore derives from East Greek workshops.
This head, with the remains of its broad left shoulder, was found
near the seated figures from the Sacred Way of the Sanctuary of
Apollo at Didyma. The head is unlikely to have come from one of
these seated figures, however, because their long hair was carved
adjoining the upper part of their high-backed chairs. This head
probably came from a standing kouros figure instead. He
resembles kouroi from the island of Samos, close to the
region of western Turkey where he was found.
G.M.A. Richter, Kouroi (London, Phaidon, 1960)