Archaic Greek Sculpture: The Kouros Michael Lahanas Κούρος

Archaische Griechische Kunst: Der Kouros

Part 2

The Volomandra Kouros (Κούρος της Βολομάνδρας), Athens National Museum since 1906, c. 560 BC, 1.79 m, discovered in 1901 (Ennea Pyrgoi),

Some consider the Kouros something like a grave marker that was used by Aristocrats that could afford these very expensive sculptures. Why their form remained for a long period relatively unchanged before the sudden revolution towards realism (mimesis) has been discussed by many specialists.

The Getty Kouros. Is he smiling because he is a modern and not an ancient Kouros?

Probably the sculptors used some rules (archaic canon). For example the ratio size head/body = 1/6 that was changed to 1/7 by

) "A Kouros" from the 1st century BC (archaizing)
and probably from the island Anaphe, near )

, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003, ISBN: 0892366869

John Boardman, John Boardman ( June 1985)