The Auxerre Statuette. Seventh-century sculpture is four-square, with emphatic, angular forms. Only in the second half of
the century was marble used, and on life-size or colossal figures. This is one of the latest (about 625 B.C.) of the smaller
(65 cm high) figures in the 'Daedalic' style, cut in soft limestone. The cast shown here has been painted with what is
believed to be the original colouring. There must have been much wooden sculpture of this style in this period.
A Kouros - grave markers of about 530 BC from Keos. The kouroi, and their lady counterparts, the korai, could serve as
grave-markers or votive offerings. The boldly patterned anatomy recalls nature without copying it and the figure stands
squarely balanced, one foot before the other.
In sculpture it was a different overseas source that inspired change, replacing one convention for another, but offering new
possibilities for progress. In Egypt Greeks of the mid seventh century and later saw colossal works of hard stone, learnt the
techniques of laying out figures at such a scale (the tools they had already: better than the Egyptians who used no iron) and
returned to exploit the fine, hard white marble of their island quarries on Naxos, and then Paros. In later Greek art the truly