The relatively small (75 cm high)

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

Cretan Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, an ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

called the Lady of Auxerre (or Kore of Auxerre), at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Museum in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

depicts an archaic Greek goddess of c. 650 - 625 BCE. It is a ''

Kore Kore may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Kore (comics), a comic-book series by Josh Blaylock and Tim Seeley *Kore (producer), French-Algerian music producer, also part of duo Kore & Skalp *Kore (sculpture), a type of ancient Greek sculpture dep ...

'' ("maiden"), perhaps a votary rather than the maiden Goddess

Persephone In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...

herself, for her right hand touches her solar plexus and her left remains stiffly at her side (Basel 2001). It is also possible that the Kore is a depiction of a deceased individual, possibly in a position of prayer.

Maxime Collignon Léon-Maxime Collignon (8 November 1849 in Verdun – 15 October 1917 in Paris) was a French archaeologist who specialized in ancient Greek art and ancient Greek architecture, architecture. Biography From 1868 he studied at the École norma ...

, a Louvre curator, found the sculpture in a storage vault in the Museum of

Auxerre Auxerre ( , ) is the capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000; the urban area (''aire d'attraction'') comprises roughly 113,000 inhabitants. Residents of Auxerre are r ...

, a city east of Paris, in 1907. No provenance is known, and its mysterious arrival at a provincial French museum gave it a journalistic allure, according to the Louvre monograph. The Archaic sculpture, bearing traces of polychrome decoration, dates from the 7th century BCE, when

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

was emerging from its

Dark Age The ''Dark Ages'' is a term for the Early Middle Ages, or occasionally the entire Middle Ages, in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that characterises it as marked by economic, intellectual and cultural decline. The conce ...

. She still has the narrow waist of a

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

- Mycenaean goddess, and her stiff hair suggests

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

influence. The Early Archaic style has been fancifully termed " Daedalic." Its secret, knowing and serene hint of a smile is often characterized as the " archaic smile." Sculptures and painted vases exhibiting correlative styles have been found outside Crete as well as in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government refor ...

and

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

(Basel 2000). Excavations in the 1990s by Nikolaos Stampolidis at

Eleutherna Eleutherna ( grc-gre, Ἐλεύθερνα), also called Apollonia ( grc-gre, Ἀπολλωνία), was an ancient city-state in Crete, Greece, which lies 25 km southeast of Rethymno in Rethymno regional unit. Archaeologists excavated the si ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

have helped establish more precisely a date and place of origin for the ''Dame d'Auxerre'', in the region of Eleutherna and

Gortyn Gortyn, Gortys or Gortyna ( el, Γόρτυν, , or , ) is a municipality, and an archaeological site, on the Mediterranean island of Crete away from the island's capital, Heraklion. The seat of the municipality is the village Agioi Deka. Gorty ...

, with the recovery from gravesites of very similar carved ivory faces and phallic symbols.

References

*Jean-Luc Martinez, 2000. ''La Dame d'Auxerre'' (Réunion des Musées Nationaux)

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica Daedalic sculpture

(German)
Statue of a woman, known as the "Lady of Auxerre", Louvre Museum official website
{{Louvre Museum 7th-century BC works Archaic Greek sculptures Art of ancient Crete Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of the Louvre Figurines Korai