Browse Items (24 total)

This document, published by the 3M Building and Commercial Services Division, details two different methods for polishing marble. One, a method in which oxalic acid is used to chemically alter the surface of the marble, is very close to the process…

Most archaic kouroi are unique, but Kleobis and Biton are exact twins. They represent the mythical brothers Kleobis and Biton, the two pious sons of a priestess to Hera. One day, the priestess was waiting for the family oxen to come home from the…

The Getty kouros was purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1984 after it underwent fourteen months of extensive legal and scientific testing. Supposedly originally from the collection of a doctor from Geneva, more recent evidence about the…

The Anavysos kouros, which the Getty kouros resembles closely, was originally the grave marker for a man named Croesus. He was killed in battle, and the inscription on the statue's base implores the viewer to "stop and mourn beside the tomb of…

The Tenea kouros was discovered near the modern city of Corinth at the ancient site of Tenea. Another grave marker, the statue has very similar proportions to the Getty kouros. It has a lithe, thin frame and smoother features. Its large, wide eyes…

This fragmentary piece is part of the little that remains of this once gigantic statue. From c. 580 BCE on Delos, this enormous statue originally stood over ten meters tall and would have been taller than any of the surrounding buildings in the area.…

This kouros was discovered at the temple of Poseidon at Sounion. It is unknown what identity this image is supposed to carry, but it is unlikely that it was meant to be an Apollo. To dedicate a statue of Apollo at another god's temple or sanctuary…

This colossal statue was dedicated at the Heraion of Samos. It originally stood next to the sacred way. On his thigh is an inscription reading "Isches son of Rhesis dedicated [me]." Its forms are smooth and rounded, showing the Samian preference for…

One of the latest kouroi in the collection, the Aristodikos kouros displays a high level of naturalism. Its musculature is much more softly rendered, leaving behind the straight, surface-level lines of early kouroi. Its arms bend at the elbows,…