The supernatural-sized archaic pupil of white Naxos marble, 2.48m high. with the inset peg at its base, it is almost intact.
In August 2021, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades completed the exhibition program of the Museum of Prehistoric Thera with the exhibition “Theraic Murals. The treasure of the Prehistoric Aegean”, with which the entire unique set of preserved prehistoric wall paintings from Akrotiri was presented to the public for the first time.
The complete renovation of the Archaeological Museum of Thira, which houses the island’s important exhibits from historical times, is already in progress by the services of the Ministry of Culture. The main exhibit of the museum, under renovation, is planned to be the Daughter of Thera, a rare masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the 7th century BC, which unexpectedly came to light in November 2000 during a rescue excavation in her cemetery of the ancient city of Thira, in southeastern Sellada, by the Thiraian archaeologist Charalambos Sigalas.
The supernatural-sized archaic pupil of white Naxos marble, 2.48m high. with the inset peg at its base, it is almost intact. The sculpture, from which only the tip of the nose and the arm of the bent right hand resting on the chest are missing, is one of the few surviving works of the large, prominent early Greek sculpture in stone, which it is expressed with the statuesque types of the kouros and the daughter, these archetypal expressions of the beauty of the time.
The almost intact statue of a female figure dressed in a long Doric veil complements in a unique way our knowledge of the type of daughter in the second half of the 7th c. BC, as its perfect preservation highlights its stylistic features and its unique artistic value.
Completing earlier, of the same period, findings also from the cemetery of Ancient Thera – parts of daughters and maidens in the pioneer Naxian tradition, in a poor, however, state of preservation, further highlights the economic prosperity and the desire to promote the Theraean aristocracy of the time, as well as her aesthetic preferences and her close contact with the artistic process.
Excavation of the wider area where the statue was found to locate its base or connect it to a specific burial yielded no additional relevant evidence, however the excavator’s interpretation of the statue as a funerary sculpture is considered safe as, among other things, it was found placed in a supine position in an area of ​​archaic burials, next to the ancient stone-paved road that crossed the cemetery leading to the ancient city.
The marble statue of Koris, as the renovation work of the Museum progresses and is expected to be completed next year, comes out of the archaeological storage and is exhibited for the first time to the public by the Ephorate of Cyclades in a periodic exhibition, which opens on September 4, 2022, by the Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni.
With the temporary exhibition of the statue, both Santorinians and visitors to the island will have the opportunity to admire this early masterpiece of ancient Greek art as a harbinger of the operation of yet another emblematic museum space in Santorini. The monuments, the archaeological sites, the museums, the cultural heritage as a whole, make Thira a leading cultural destination in the Mediterranean.
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