Hellenistic Freestanding Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, Part 2: Demeter, Kore, and the Polykles Family

by Andrew Stewart

Hesperia, Volume 81, Issue 4
Page(s): 655-689
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.81.4.0655
Year: 2012
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ABSTRACT:

This article, the second in a series publishing the Hellenistic freestanding sculpture from the Athenian Agora, collects four fragments of over-life-size female statues and two related heads. Dating to ca. 150 B.C., all but one of the related pieces are attributable to the Polykles family from Thorikos. The fragments are apparently from a cult group of Demeter and Kore, and they broaden our understanding of the technique, style, and iconography of the genre. They also contribute significantly to our knowledge of Hellenistic Athenian sculpture from Athens, illuminating the Athenian portion of the Polykles family’s sculptural production, and they compare favorably with other mid-Hellenistic cult statues from elsewhere in Greece.