Lady of Auxerre

Lady of Auxerre
Materiallimestone
Height75 cm
Createdc. 638 BC
Discovered1907
Auxerre, Bourgogne-Franche-Comte, France
Present locationParis, Ile-de-France, France

The relatively small (75 cm high) limestone Cretan sculpture called the Lady of Auxerre (or Kore of Auxerre), held at the Louvre Museum in Paris, depicts an archaic Greek goddess of c. 650 - 625 BCE. It is a Kore ("maiden"), perhaps a votary rather than the maiden Goddess Persephone herself, for her right hand touches her solar plexus and her left remains stiffly at her side (Basel 2001). It is also possible that the Kore is a depiction of a deceased individual, possibly in a position of prayer.