A Roman marble archaistic kore. Circa 1st Century B.C./A.D.

26 avril 2009

A Roman marble archaistic kore. Circa 1st Century B.C./A.D.

A Roman marble archaistic kore. Circa 1st Century B.C./A.D.

Dressed in a diaphanous long-sleeved chiton beneath a himation worn in a thick fold across the chest from her left shoulder and hanging in rippling folds below, the flattened back with details of the falling folds of drapery, 38¼in (97cm) high, mounted. Estimate: £30,000 - 50,000

Provenance: Collection of Jacques Schotte (1928-2007), Belgium, 1950s onwards.

Literature: 'Archaistic' refers to works of art that recall the style of the Greek Archaic period (ca. 700-480 B.C.). The kore with her clinging chiton and heavy folds of her stylised himation as seen on many of the korai from the Athenian Acropolis, was a popular subject.

Although begun in the early Hellenistic period, the use of retrospective styles particularly flourished under Roman rule. In conquering the Hellenistic world in the 2nd-1st Century B.C., the Romans increasingly became patrons of Greek art, and the artistic achievements of Classical Greece came to be looked upon with admiration, and were much imitated. Cf. M.D. Fullerton, The Archaistic Style in Roman Statuary, (Leiden, 1990).

For another Roman archaistic kore, cf. A. Dunsmore et al., Ancient Civilisations in the International Collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, (Melbourne 2004), p.90.