Berlin Standing Goddess

Goddess. Standing.

Berlin.

The statue

• Found in Attica after being buried by the Greeks to prevent destruction by the

Persians?• Well preserved colours, saved by the statue

being wrapped in lead sheeting.• Made in around 570BC, in the Archaic period.• Polos hat, typically worn by goddesses.

The design

• Fairly traditional Kore pose, with the feet in line.

• The statue is supported by the large baseof the dress

• Arms not by sides, breaking symmetry.• Hands joined to the body and the dress

connecting the upper arms with the body.

The face and head• Very basic facial features.• The eyes and cheeks bulge out

significantly.• Archaic smile.• Very unrealistically long neck.• Necklace.• Hair being straight and simple down the

back. • Unusual to be wearing a hat, and also

has end of hair in a band.

Features• Dress detail is etched in.• Drapery very vertical and repetitive.• Unnatural folds.• Much more cylindrical in shape.• Carrying a pomegranate in right hand.• This feature means that the statue could be of

Persephone, who ate a pomegranate in the underworld. The hat also leads us to believe that she is a goddess.

• Earrings, bracelets, sandals.

Woodford

• “simple symmetry”

• “figure seems rigid in pose”

• “drapery manipulated into a contrived pattern”

Opinions

• The colours work quite well, good idea of how they would have been.• Statue is of too poor a quality even compared with other works of the time to be fully appreciated, there are too many

errors to make it look realistic, e.g. Feet, eyes.