This is one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. The rigid stance, with the left leg forward and arms at the side, was derived from Egyptian art. The pose provided a clear, simple formula that was used by Greek sculptors throughout the sixth century B.C. In this early figure, almost abstract, geometric forms predominate; and anatomical details are rendered in beautiful analogous patterns. The statue marked the grave of a young Athenian aristocrat.
#117. The Director's Tour, First Floor: Statue of a Kouros (Youth), Part 1
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117. The Director's Tour, First Floor: Statue of a Kouros (Youth), Part 1
5869. The Director's Tour, First Floor: Statue of a Kouros (Youth), Part 2
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Detail of the proper left nipple
A sample of red paint from the kouros’s hairband seen under the petrographic microscope (left) and the scanning electron microscope (right). The hematite-rich ocher is applied directly to the marble surface. Microchemical analysis of hematite particles detected traces of arsenic, a similar occurrence found in the hematite-rich ocher of the sphinx 11.185d.
The kouros’s surface is analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to detect chemical elements that allow to identify pigment remains.
Marco Leona, David H. Koch Scientist in Charge, is analyzing the area around the kouros’s nipple by fiber optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) in search for possible remains of organic colorants.
Artwork Details
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Title:Marble statue of a kouros (youth)
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 590–580 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Marble, Naxian
Dimensions:76 5/8 × 20 5/16 × 24 7/8 in. (194.6 × 51.6 × 63.2 cm) Other (height w/o plinth): 76 5/8 in. (194.6 cm) Other (Height of Head): 12 in. (30.5 cm) Other (Length of face): 8 7/8 in. (22.6 cm) Other (shoulder width): 20 5/16 in. (51.6 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1932
Object Number:32.11.1
Said to be from Attica (Richter 1931, p. 220)
[Until 1931, with Jacob Hirsch, New York]; acquired October 6, 1931, purchased from Jacob Hirsch, New York.
Beazley, John D. 1932. Greek Sculpture & Painting to the End of the Hellenistic Period. p. 20, fig. 34, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1932. "The Archaic Greek Statue." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 27(10): pp. 217–23, figs. 1–4.
1932. "Editorial Comment." American Journal of Archaeology, 36(4): p. 381, pl. A.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Irma A. Richter. 1934–1936. "The Archaic 'Apollo' in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolian Museum Studies, 5: pp. 20–57, figs. 1-14, 23.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936[1934]. A Guide to the Collections, Part 1: Ancient and Oriental Art, 2nd edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1939. Guide to the Collections: Ancient and Oriental Art--Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman Far Eastern, Near Eastern Oriental Armor, Vol. 1, World's Fair Edition. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1942. Kouroi: A Study of the Development of the Greek Kouros from the Late Seventh to the Early Fifth Century B.C.. no. 1, pp. 63–6, pls. VI-VIII, figs. 19-26, XIII, fig. 42, XX, fig. 67, CXXXII, figs. 448-50, New York: Oxford University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1950. The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks, 3rd edn. pp. 53, 346, fig. 18, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Taylor, Francis Henry. 1952. "The Archaic Smile: A Commentary on the Arts in Times of Crisis." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10(8): p. 223.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 47, 193, pl. 33, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. no. 1, pp. 1–2, pls. 1-3, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1970. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. New York: Dutton.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. "The Department of Greek and Roman Art: Triumphs and Tribulations." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3: pp. 82, 85, fig. 17.
Hoving, Thomas. 1970. "Director's Choice." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 28(5): pp. 202–3.
Avery, Catherine B. 1972[1962]. The New Century Handbook of Greek Art and Architecture. p. vii, pl. 1, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Robertson, Martin and Cambridge University Press. 1975. A History of Greek Art, Vols. 1 and 2. p. 45, pl. 10a, Cambridge, England.
Levi, Peter. 1980. Atlas of the Greek World. p. 70, Oxford: Phaidon Press.
Reuterswärd, Patrik. 1980. Studien zur Polychromie der Plastik. pp. 45, n. 75, 66, Stockholm: Bokförlaget Svenska.
Guralnick, Eleanor. 1981. "Proportions of Korai." American Journal of Archaeology, 85(1): pp. 270 n. 12, 278.
Guralnick, Eleanor. 1982. "Profiles of Korai." American Journal of Archaeology, 86(2): pp. 401–5, 40––9, figs. 2–3.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 14, pp. 9, 28–9, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus. 1989. Herrscher und Athlet: Die Bronzen vom Quirinal. pp. 69–70, 74, pls. 25a, 25b, Milan: Olivetti.
Stewart, Andrew F. 1990. Greek Sculpture: An Exploration. pp. 34, 108–9, 111-12, pls. 42, no. 3, 43, no. 3, 49-55, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Howard Kathleen. 1994. Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide: Works of Art Selected by Philippe De Montebello. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Métraux, Guy P. R. 1995. Sculptors and Physicians in Fifth-Century Greece: A Preliminary Study. fig. 13, Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Bol, Peter C. 1997. Liebieghaus-Museum alter Plastik. Fuhrer durch die Sammlungen: Griechische und Romische Plastik. p. 37, Abb. 18, Frankfurt am Main: Liebieghaus Skulpturen Sammlung.
Picón, Carlos A. 1999. "Pleins feux sur l'art grec et romain." Connaissance des Arts, : p. 86.
Onians, John. 1999. Classical Art and the Cultures of Greece and Rome. pp. 75, 77, fig. 56, New Haven: Yale University Press.
2002. Der Kuros vom Heiligen Tor : Überraschende Neufunde archaischer Skulptur im Kerameikos in Athen pp. 60–2, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. p. 95, pls. 1–5, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Höckmann, Ursula. 2004. "Werke zyprischer Bildhauer im griechischen Naukratis. Eine Kourosstatuette in Oxford." Sepulkral- und Votivdenkmäler östlicher Mittelmeergebiete (7. Jahrhundert v.Chr. - 1. Jahrhundert n.Chr.) : Kulturbegegnungen im Spannungsfeld von Akzeptanz und Resistenz : Akten des Internationalen Symposiums Mainz, 01.-03.11.2001, Renate Bol and Detlev Kreikenbom, eds. p. 63 n. 26, Mönnesee: Bibliopolis.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 67, pp. 70–71, 419, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Brinkmann, Vinzenz. 2007. "The Coloring of Archaic and Early Classical Sculpture." Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Vinzenz Brinkmann and Raimund Wünsche, eds. pp. 32–33, fig. 26, Cambridge: Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. pp. 46, 66, fig. 30, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Carter, Jane B. and Laura J. Steinberg. 2010. "Kouroi and Statisics." American Journal of Archaeology, 114(1): p. 107, fig. 2.
Palagia, Olga. 2010. "Early Archaic Sculpture in Athens." Scolpire il marmo: Importazioni, artisti itineranti, scuole artistiche nel Mediterraneo antico, Gianfranco Adornato, ed. p. 44 n. 34, fig. 15, Milano: LED.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. p. 64, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lazzarini, Lorenzo and Clemente Marconi. 2014. "A New Analysis of Major Greek Sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum: Petrological and Stylistic." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 49: pp. 124–25, 129, fig. 20.
Zanker, Paul. 2016. Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 3, fig. 3, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Brinkmann, Vinzenz, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Oliver Primavesi, and Jan Stubbe Østergaard. 2020. Bunte Götter. Golden Edition: Die Farben der Antike. pp. 66–67, 154, fig. 64, Munich: Prestel Verlag.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. pp. 069, 266, New York: Phaidon Press.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. no. 6, pp. 21, 58–61, 69, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul. 2022. Afterlives : Ancient Greek Funerary Monuments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 1, pp. 24–28, New York: Scala Publishers.
Williams, Dyfri, Kenneth Lapatin, Nicholaus Dietrich, Judith M. Barringer, Francois Lissarrague, and Edinburgh University Press. 2022. Images at the Crossroads : Media and Meaning in Greek Art, Judith M. Barringer and Francois Lissarrague, eds. pp. 436–37, fig. 19.5a–b, Edinburgh.
Estrin, Seth. 2023. "Archaic Sculpture and Archaisms of Gender:
Rethinking the “Brother and Sister Stele”." The Art Bulletin, 105(3): pp. 37, 39, 52, fig. 5.
Hemingway, Seán and Sarah Lepinski. 2025. "Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color and Anceint Polychromy at The Met." Chroma: Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. pp. 35–36, figs. a–c, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Carò, Federico and Elena Basso. 2025. "In Search of Ancient Pigments : The contribution of scientific research to Chroma : Ancient Sculpture in Color." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. p. 58, fig. 1, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
