Statuette of a Kouros, called the Gillet Kouros
Unknown (Argos) · c. 570 BC
A naked youth only seventeen centimetres tall stands in the standard kouros pose, arms at his sides, in solid bronze. His long hair falls in a mass behind the shoulders, with a row of curls over the forehead and a ribbon around the head, and every detail, the hair, the ribbon, the nipples and the pubic hair, has been sharpened with an engraving tool after casting. The feet are lost and the surface is pitted with age, but the figure keeps the compact, broad-shouldered proportions of Peloponnesian bronzes.
The statuette was made in Argos, the powerful city in the north-eastern Peloponnese, around 570 BC, and would have been dedicated in a sanctuary as an offering, an ex-voto in miniature of the life-size marble kouroi that stood nearby. Small bronzes like this were cast solid and worked by hand, and they survive in far greater numbers than large statues because their metal was too little to be worth melting down. It is called the Gillet kouros after its former owner, and it entered the Louvre as a gift in 1973.
Did You Know? At seventeen centimetres this bronze is a pocket-sized version of the life-size marble kouroi that stood in Greek sanctuaries.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.