Kouros

Kouros is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less frequent presence in many other Ancient Greek territories such as Sicily.
Such statues are found across the Greek-speaking world; the preponderance of these were found in sanctuaries of Apollo with more than one hundred from the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoion, Boeotia, alone.
These free-standing sculptures were typically marble, but the form is also rendered in limestone, wood, bronze, ivory and terracotta. They are typically life-sized, though early colossal examples are up to 10 feet/3 metres tall.
The female sculptural counterpart of the kouros is the kore.

Etymology

The Ancient Greek word kouros refers to "youth, boy, especially of noble rank."
When a pubescent was received into the body of grown men, as a grown Kouros, he could enter the initiation fest of the brotherhood. Apellaios was the month of these rites, and Apollo was the "megistos kouros".
The word is also attested in Linear B, a syllabary system of writing used to record the Mycenaean Greek dialect of the Hellenic languages. The word ko-wo is attested in tablets from Pylos and Knossos, and could mean "the sons of the women recorded in those tablets".
The term kouros was first proposed for what were previously thought to be depictions of Apollo by V.I. Leonardos in 1895 in relation to the youth from Keratea, and adopted by Henri Lechat as a generic term for the standing male figure in 1904.

Purpose

The kouros type appears to have served several functions. It was previously thought that it was used only to represent the god Apollo, as attested by its depiction on a vase painting in the presence of supplicants. This association with Apollo was supported by the description of the statue of the Pythian Apollo at Samos by Diodoros as "Egyptian in style, with his arms hanging by his sides and his legs parted". However, not all kouroi are images of a deity; many have been discovered in cemeteries where they likely served as commemorative tombstones of the deceased. This type was also used as a memorial for victors in the games, kouroi were used as offerings to the gods,, and some kouroi have been found in sanctuaries other than that of Apollo. Indeed, some kouroi placed in sanctuaries were not inscribed with the name of the god but with a mortal, for example the 'Delphi Twins' Kleobis and Biton were honoured for their piety with matching kouroi.

Origin and evolution

The evolution of the kouros type is inevitably linked to that of the overall development of monumental Archaic Greek sculpture. There are fundamentally two schools of thought on how Daedalic forms, some of which we know of only from the literature, became the free-standing sculpture in around the 6th century; namely, that it was a response to the internal development of Greek types and religious needs or a product of foreign influence. For an external cause for change, possible sources of influence have been cited, such as Egypt, Anatolia and Syria, with the strongest case made for Egypt, in particular the figure of Horus. It is known that the Greeks had longstanding trade relations with Egypt prior to the founding of the Greek entrepôt of Naukratis in the mid-7th century,
where the Greeks could have learned Egyptian sculpting methods. A 1978 study by Eleanor Guralnick applied stereophotogrammetric measurement and cluster analysis to a number of Greek and Egyptian statues and found the correlation between the Second Canon of the 26th Dynasty and Greek kouroi to be widely distributed but not universal.
File:Louvre E5345.jpg|thumb|Saite sculpture from the Egyptian 26th dynasty, similar in proportion and form to the early kouros type, Louvre|273x273px
The work of Guralnick along with the previous studies by Erik Iversen and Kim Levin have added considerably to the argument for an imitation by Greek sculptors of Egyptian sculpture. The system of proportion in the second Egyptian canon of the Saite period consisted of a grid of twenty-one and one-fourth parts, with twenty-one squares from the soles of the feet to a line drawn through the centre of the eyes. The grid was applied to the surface of the block being carved, allowing the major anatomical features to be located at fixed grid points. Iversen has shown that the New York kouros conforms to this ratio of proportion. It was Guralnick, however, who developed this discovery by comparing other kouroi by means of cluster and Z-score profile analysis to the Egyptian Canon II and a control group composed of statistically average Mediterranean men. As a result, she has identified two strains within methods of proportioning in sixth century kouroi, where the majority follow the general line of evolution from the foreign model towards an idealized human norm.
According to Hurwit & Campbell: "Kouroi apparently first appeared on the island of Naxos, since most early examples are in Naxian marble".

Attributes and meaning

Kouroi are beardless, take a formulaic advancing posture, and are most often nude.
Taking from the style of Egyptian figures, Greek kouroi often have their left leg extended forward as though walking; however, the figurine looks as though it could be either standing still or taking a long stride. A small number of early kouroi are belted around their waists, a practice that died out at the turn of the sixth century. Such belts have traditionally been assumed to be an abbreviated symbol of a more complex costume, however fully clothed contemporary figures also exist, suggesting that it was not just a sculptor's shorthand for clothing but a signifier in itself. Art historian B.S. Ridgway suggests that this may have been an attribute of Apollo, athleticism or magical powers, though its iconography remains obscure. Further, there is the question of the nudity of the kouros and if this is also an attribute. Again this may have represented athletic or heroic nudity – immortalising the youth as he appeared in the palaestra, but no examples have been found at Olympia nor do they bear any allusion to athletic equipment.
As well as being found in the sanctuaries of Apollo at Delphi, Delos and Mt. Ptoion, kouroi have been found dedicated at the sanctuaries of Hera at Samos, and of Athena and Poseidon at Sounion,
so the contention that they depict Apollo is at the very least problematic. However, the majority are from Apollonian sites and dedicated to that god, which has led Ridgway to suggest that the early, belted form of the kouros-type statue was introduced in the late seventh century as a replacement for the colossal representation of Apollo.
Over time, the votive and funerary functions of the sculpture became divorced whilst its attributes were shed and its form became more generic until, in the late sixth century, it could serve a number of uses depending on context and location. This 'polyvalent' argument, initially put forth by historian Jean Ducat,
was elaborated by art historian Andrew Stewart, who contends the distribution of kouroi coincides with city-states where the aristocracy were in ascendancy and that this alternation between the divine and the memorial was an identification of aristocratic arete with the immortal.

Development

The earliest extant examples may be the two life-sized marble figures from the Ionic sanctuary on the island of Delos dating from the second or third quarter of the seventh century. The canonical form of the kouros persists until the beginning of the classical period, by which time artists had achieved a high degree of anatomical verisimilitude, if not naturalism, as can be observed on such transitional works as the Kritios Boy, The absolute chronology of the kouros form is uncertain; none of the sculptures have secure dates.
There is a strong homogeneity across the various regional schools: where anatomical innovations were adopted they seem to have spread quickly amongst the different workshops so that "regional distinctions become merged in a common progression". Consequently, the development of the kouros type as we now understand it is based on the relative chronology delineated by Richter, who distinguishes six groups by their common anatomical features, with particular reference to the major muscle groups as illustrated in the écorchés.

Sounion group

615–590 BCE: the dates of this period are tentative, roughly late seventh-early sixth century, which Richter infers from the duration of development necessary for the previous generations from the more securely dated Tenea-Volomandra group. Additionally she notes a similarity of sculpture from this time to early Athenian pottery, particularly the Nessos amphora
and the human figures on the Horse amphorae.
Richter also detects a resemblance between the New York-Sounion kouroi and an early Corinthian pyxis
of the last quarter of the seventh century. Notable works of the time include the New York kouros,
Dermys and Kittylos,
Delphi Twins,
the Sounion kouros, and the Delos colossus.
The conception of form in this period is abstract and geometrical, emphasis is on architectural shape and the interrelation of parts which favoured expressive pattern over realism. Figures display the four faces of the block from which they are carved, their form is cubic with details incised, and their anatomy is only partially understood. Harmony and expressive pattern are the goal, and as such the proportions are abnormal. The torso is four-sided and flat, the back is higher than chest with the vertebral column expressed as a straight line. The skull is undeveloped; flat at the back and often on top. The ear is carved in one plane, and highly stylized. Tragus is knob like, either on cheek or lobe. Antitragus is not indicated. The eyes are large and flat, canthus is not marked, lachrymal caruncle is not indicated. The mouth is horizontal, with lips on same plane, and corners of mouth forming triangular depressions. Hair is arranged in parallel beaded tresses, which rarely radiates from the vertex. The Sterno-mastoids, when marked, are indicated by grooves running to the sternal notch. There is no indication of swelling of trapezius on the outline of shoulders. The clavicles are flat ridges along whole course of shoulders. Median line is sometimes marked by a groove from sternal notch to navel. The lower boundary of the thorax has the shape of a pointed arch. Rectus abdominis is formed by three or more transverse divisions above navel. The navel is generally a knob in a circular groove. Serratus magnus is not indicated. The shoulder blades are outlined by grooves on the surface of back. The erector spinae attachment to posterior part of the iliac crest is sometimes indicated by grooves in the lumbar regions. Forearm is supinated, with palm towards the body. Arms often separated from body between armpit and hand. Thumbs are large. Vastus internus descends to about the same level as vastus externus, the shin is vertical, and the malleoli are level. Weight is evenly distributed on both legs and the flanks are level.