Statuette of a Woman Wearing a Peplos

460–450 B.C.

Medium

Bronze

Dimensions

16.1 × 4.5 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-217181

Standing in repose, this female statuette rests her weight on her right leg and extends her more relaxed left leg slightly forward, breaking the vertical folds of her peplos (dress). Her right hand rests on her hip; her left arm is bent sharply at the elbow and held beneath the overfold of her garment, with the hidden hand raising the fabric hear the neckline. Her face is rather austere, with heavy features, a prominent jaw, and broad neck. The soft fabric of the sakkos, or head-dress, that covers her head is patterned with circles and zigzags and forms a series of soft ridges down the back. The position of the figure, with her left hand hidden beneath the overfold of her peplos, is known in examples of bronze mirror karyatids (female figures that formed the handles of such mirrors). The type of attachment on this statuette’s head, however, suggests that she supported a thymiaterion (incense burner) or a candelabrum rather than a mirror. The woman's erect posture and the columnar folds of her garment would have suited this function well. A portion of the cylindrical support that connected the figure to the implement above remains, protruding from the top of her head. This sta…