Ancient Greece (pt. 4)

Greek sculpture is split into three periods: the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Periods.  The Archaic Period occurs from about 600 to 480B.C., and it features a great number of kouroi.  A kouros was a male youth who may have been either a god or an athlete.  They are free standing sculptures of men in stiff, straight poses.  They are symmetrically balanced, with the arms and legs separated.  Their faces show bulging eyes, a square chin, and a grinning mouth.  Both feet are touching the ground, and the only movement is in the left foot.  The term for this is contrapposto—a pose in which the weight of the body is balanced on one leg while the other is free and relaxed.

Korai (plural of kore) were clothed women, often goddesses, and they have equally stiff poses and bent left arms to signify authority.  Sculptors put simple patterns of lines to distinguish their clothes.  This is the Hera of Samos, sculpted during the Archaic Period.  The straight, repeated vertical lines represent a light, lower garment, and the widely-spaced lines show a heavy garment.