Munich Kouros
The Munich Kouros is 2.08 meters high and dates back to the 3rd quarter of the 6th century BC. Dated grave statue of a naked youth from Attica . It is under inventory number 169 in the Munich Glyptothek , which it acquired in 1910.
The statue, now made of reddish-brown weathered marble , follows the scheme of a kouros , one of the main themes of archaic sculpture. The left leg is placed forward, the right step back slightly without reproducing a motive for movement: The position of the legs has little effect on the design of the pelvis, which only imperceptibly indicates that the left side is raised or the right is lowered.
The broad and muscular shoulders are also on the same level. The freely drawn arms hang down parallel to the body, the forearms are angled slightly forward, the hands are clenched into fists. Only in the area of the inside of the fist were the forearms connected to the body by means of small marble bridges. Compared to older representatives of the type, the muscular body shows smoother transitions between the body parts, but in the area of the abdominal muscles it has the unnatural three-way division of the muscle packages between the costal arch and the navel, which is typical for older works. The treatment of the back with its schematic furrows, which indicate different muscle parts running from the backbone to the flanks, as well as the shoulder blades, is based on very older models.
The face is full and round-oval, and in the side view it also reaches a depth unknown in older statues. The “ archaic smile ” typical of statues of the time plays around the lips. The eyes are almond-shaped, and the ears are realistically rendered in contrast to older statues. The face is framed by three-dimensional, hanging spiral curls that split across the middle of the forehead. In the area of the dome, the spiral curls are shown lying flat, in the area of the neck the hair is cut short.
Due to its stylistic features, the kouros is dated around 540/30 BC. Or more generally in the 3rd quarter of the 6th century BC Dated. He is close to the Kouros of Anavyssos , who also comes from Attica . But this shows a clearer separation between standing and free leg , which also affects the pelvic position with its contraction of the left side of the standing leg.
literature
- Werner Fuchs , Josef Floren , The Greek sculpture. Volume 1: The geometric and archaic sculpture ( handbook of archeology ). CH Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-31718-9 , p. 256 plate 20.4.
- Marion Meyer , Nora Brüggemann: Kore and Kouros. Consecrations for the gods (= Viennese research on archeology. Volume 10). Phoibos Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 3-901232-80-X , p. 207 No. 329.
- Gisela MA Richter : Kouroi, Archaic Greek Youths. A Study of the Development of the Kouros Type in Greek Sculpture. Phaidon, London 1960, p. 118, No. 135, Figs. 391–394.399.
- Raimund Wünsche : Glyptothek Munich. Masterpieces of Greek and Roman sculpture. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-42288-8 , pp. 66-68.
Web links
- A walk through the Glyptothek in Munich , accessed on December 13, 2016