Elongated Woman Wearing a Diadem

Advancing with her left leg, this elongated woman (kore) appears to stride forward unsteadily in her upturned shoes. This impression is reinforced by the placement of her arms: the right is bowed out to the side, as if for balance, while the left is swung forward, its hand missing. Dressed in a long, diaphanous tunic, the figure’s breasts, rendered as two knobs of bronze set high upon her chest, are visible beneath her costume. A pattern of long vertical waves creates the impression sheer fabric. The bottom of her tunic bears a leaf-like motif. The woman’s hair is combed back from her face and tucked into a cap of some type, perhaps a snood, and she wears a crown with a lightly incised pattern, possibly depicting rays. Identified as “female figures of worshippers or perhaps temple attendants,” late Archaic korai figures of this type are sometimes shown holding offerings or making gestures of prayer (1). Richardson places this piece within her group of provincial korai, which “imitate the costumes and gestures of the Ionian or Severe korai of the late Archaic period, but in an exaggerated way” (2). NOTES: 1. E. Richardson, Etruscan Votive Bronzes: Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic (Mainz, 1983) 249. 2. Ibid., 308. For the decoration of the dress, compare also a statuette of Minerva in the Villa Giulia in G. Colonna, Bronzi votivi umbro-sabellici a figura umana 1: Periodo “arcaico” (Florence, 1970) 37-38, no. 43, pl. 13. Aimée F. Scorziello