The female counterpart of the kouros is the kore, the draped standing female figure. The kore explores the relationship between garment and body, moving from complete obscuring of anatomy through hints of the body beneath, to daring revelations of limbs, in some late archaic korai. Paradoxically, the more opportunities for rendering drapery folds ornamentally in varied textures, patterns, and colors, the more visible the body became.
As with the kouroi the functions of the korai were both votive and commemorative. The kore does not appear until a generation or so after the appearance of the kouroi, which is baffling. Examples continue to the end of the Archaic period, with a specially striking late Archaic series coming from the Athenian Acropolis. It seems that rich dedications to Athena were popular at the court of Peisistratos and his sons.
With korai the changes throughout the period are measured more in terms of the rendering of the drapery than of the anatomy. Female dress apparently depended on three major garments, the peplos,the chiton, and the himation or mantle, all of which amounted to little more than rectangles
of cloth, buttoned or pinned, and arranged in different ways.
The peplos,
often of wool, was folded down from the neck, and worn with a belt. Secured at
the shoulder with pins, it was sleeveless and sometimes worn over a chiton.
The chiton, often of linen, was like the peplos, a rectangle of cloth. It was
buttoned along the upper edge in two sections to allow holes for head and arms
and was sleeved and belted.
The himation, or mantle, was a smaller oblong of
cloth, buttoned along one long side, in such a way that it could be worn over
the right shoulder and under the left arm. This was most often worn on top of
the chiton.
Sculptors throve on the multiplicity of patterns offered by the
drapery, and on the ornamental qualities provided by creases, folds, and tucks
of different textures of cloth. Sometimes they were so carried away by the
richness of the patterns that the logic and reality of actual garments is
lost.
SPRING 2016 
