#Kouros

[teenagedirtstache]

[mythologer]

The Kouros of Samos.

[mythosphere]

ΜοΜ ι τΗρεω υρ

[aecholapis]

@oldboyjensenhinglemeier has written a story titled Overture of The Wreckers: First Movement for this year's @tf-bigbang, featuring well-known characters like little Kouros (Springer) as seen above and a dysfunctional team that will become the Wreckers.

Please go check out Jensen's story!

[eucanthos]

Palaikastro Kouros

The Kouros statuette (1480-25 B.C.). Composite of ivory, gold, serpentine, rock crystal, wood and Egyptian blue, 54 x 18.5 cm. Archaeological Museum of Siteia (ph. Olaf Tausch)

Often interpreted as a cult image, the excavators found the kouros burned, broken, desecrated, and its pieces spread across the building no. 5 (where its basis/plinth was also revealed)

The hands, feet, & hair preserve incredible craftsmanship, complete with minutely rendered musculature & vascularity! The hair presents equal skill, carved from serpentine & attached to the head!

This young male figurine from Palaikastro is the earliest known example of chryselephantine statuary type.

Its violent destruction and the fact that cult statues would only start appearing in temples much later, suggests that it was an aberration which, in the contexts of the post-traumatic stress related to the Santorini eruption, could be interpreted as a "crisis cult."

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/aegean-art1/minoan/a/statuette-of-a-male-figure-the-palaikastro-kouros

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Palaikastro-Kouros-courtesy-L-H-Sackett-J-A-MacGillivray_fig1_309302935

https://twtext.com/article/1264495772990652416

[kararadaygum]

..

[blueeyeddarkknight]

Those two are hilarious !😂 (I want a Cher & Val show ❤️)

(Cheral? Cherval? Ver? 🤔 Idk. what do you think their ship name should be? )

[annasellheim]

[ukdamo]

Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits: a monumental kouros figure, Archaeological Museum of Samos. 

[romegreeceart]

Marble kouros

* 550 BCE

* Sacred way of Didyma, Ionia

* British Museum

source: British Museum, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

photo by Pymouss

[casskeeps]

aristodikos kouros

basic information

name: aristodikos kouros

date: 510-500 bce (very late archaic)

artist: unknown

function: grave marker

size: just under 2m

original, reconstructed, or copy: original, parian marble

subject matter

as per most archaic kouroi, we assume that the aristodikos kouros is not a likeness of the person whose grave he marked. as typical for kouroi, he is a nude male fiugre, likely a young adult; the kouros appears to depict an idealised athletic male figure.

context

we are at the end of the archaic period here !! this kouros represents one of the major shifts in the attitudes in greek art - this is where sculptors started to realise that highly rigid poses and more naturalistic forms don't mix particularly well.

composition

the pose of this statue is still very much typical of a kouros; the archaic "walking pose" prevails, and the arms are still firmly at the sides. this pose looks uncomfortably stiff - much more so than it seems for earlier, more abstractly represented sculpture. this detracts from the naturalism of the statue as there is a disconnect between the less naturalistic pose and the more realistic anatomy.

the aristodikos kouros demonstrates much more anatomical accuracy and understanding than earlier kouroi; the muscles are more accurately placed, and complex forms are created using rounded and curved planes instead of incisions. this is particularly evident in the depiction of the shins; the sculptor has precisely carved out the shin bone, allowing it to appear as an independent anatomical form from the calf. the facial anatomy, although damaged, also demonstrates a much more developed understanding of the human body, especially in the soft curve of the jaw, which appears closer to early classical statues than earlier archaic kouroi. there is one point of interest that is particularly unique, however, and that is the star-shaped figure on his groin. it adds a little bit of visual interest and flair to the statue without distracting significantly from the rest of the anatomy.

again, the nude male figure prevails! aristodikos is again an athletic male figure, although slightly less curvacious than the anavyssos kouros.

we can't make out much of his facial expression due to him being run over by a plough, but the amount that we can see appears serene and relaxed - the archaic smile is starting to lose its chokehold on sculpture.

the proportions of this statue are mostly well balanced, which realistic musculature and width of limbs. the head is undersized slightly, but this does not detract massively from the statue.

stylistic features

we are leaving behind the traditions of the archaic period and starting to give way to the early classical schools of art; aristodikos displays very few abstract shapes that are not clearly intended, and his anatomy is largely realistic, without the common struggles of insectoid and oversized eyes.

scholars

osborne, re: grave markers: "those who pass by ... find in the smiling but stony gaze an image of theiir own mortality".

woodford: "looks so much like a living man that the way he stands now appears unnaturally stiff"

extra information

runshaw classics

[butterflyclub24]

[ritualware]

[parfumieren]

Kouros & Body Kouros (Yves Saint Laurent)

What I'm about to say might cause a platoon of fragrance chauvinists to swallow their tongues. For them, YSL Kouros is the genius loci of an inviolably male precinct, a sacred scent with whom no mere woman may traffic. The idea of me rocking their filthy-dirty stonking wunderfume would be purest anathema-- and yet I'm doing it as we speak, and the words that come most readily to mind are "big ol' cuddlebear".

Cue the falling-upon of swords!

All right, look. I won't emasculate Kouros entirely. This 1981 monolith deserves all the he-manly epithets with which the decades have graced it. It IS raunchy. It IS racy. It's hung like Liam Neeson and has a half-life that rivals vanadium. But everything about it that could be overwhelming (the brisk face-slap of aromatic wormwood, the whiplash sting of civet-soaked leather) is tempered by something remarkably benign (rosy florals, ozonic amber, the scent of Chinese five-spice). Mad, bad, and dangerous to know? Like fun. This is no angry deity, but a gentle, downy-cheeked, smiling youth of the sort immortalized in a thousand Tom of Finland illustrations. He knows how much further a soft word will get him than a growl; that macho pose is just the icing on some very, very sweet cake.

So here's to the boy who cleans up nice and plays well with girls. He'll never need to twist my arm. (Hear that, Hugo Boss?)

**********

Now let's talk about who such boys grow up to be... and what they wear. As the child is the father to the man, Kouros set the stage for Body Kouros. An improvement? Let's see.

**********

My first car was a 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle, light blue with one orange door. I named him Henry and loved him like a brother. Who cares if he came without a sun roof? I covered his inside domed ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars and planets. Forget the sun; I had an entire galaxy overhead.

How on earth, you rightly ask, will this tie in with YSL Body Kouros? Buckle up and sit tight, passenger. We'll get there when we get there.

From learning to drive stickshift to knowing exactly how high to turn up the heat before one's shins begin to roast, the sense of intimacy one develops with a VW Beetle offers a satisfaction unlike any other in the realm of car ownership. Both my father and my grandfather were "Bug" loyalists; when the latter deeded me his frayed copy of John Muir's 1969 classic How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot, I felt as though I had been handed my birthright. From its stained pages, I culled the rudiments of DIY repair-- no despised task, since the boy in me loved to get engine grease all over his hands. I learned how to check my own oil and fluids, strip and reconnect wires, and reset by hand that tiny timing gear that used to cause me to stall coming out of first.

For engine problems I couldn't solve myself, I took Henry to the local VW garage, a dilapidated old structure on a winding back country road. There, the aging hippie mechanics unfailingly called me ma'am even though I was clearly a 22-year-old punk chick in Docs and ripped cargo shorts. Vintage VW mechanics are a unique lot, because they love their subject just as much as their clients do. Where other mechanics might speak condescendingly to a female car owner or even try to bilk her, VW mechanics recognized the engine grease under my fingernails as a sort of fraternity signal. And when they saw my copy of Muir in the back seat, the floodgates opened. They'd stand with me for an hour, speaking honestly and passionately about that quirky little automobile we all adored.

Something about leaving Henry at the garage amidst a yard of other Beetles (red with one blue door, yellow with one purple door, silver with both doors in apple green) made me happy-- as though I was dropping him off for a playdate with his friends. I think it made him happy too, because when I returned to pick him up, he purred. The mechanics would stand outside and wave goodbye as I puttered down the street. In the rearview mirror of hindsight, I still see them clearly: men like my father, like my grandfather; the salt-of-the-earth kind on whom you can "absotively posilutely" rely.

And today -- a bright, cloudless day blessed with cool weather, perfect for a drive -- I'm wearing Body Kouros in their honor.

If you've ever personally been acquainted with an auto mechanic, you know that even when they're off duty and in civilian wear, the faint, discreet odor of engine grease and motor oil hovers over their skin. If you're like me, you find this aroma extremely pleasant-- evoking, as it does, the satisfaction derived from worthwhile labor. To me, Body Kouros says one thing, simply and cleanly: job well done.

It starts off simultaneously tart and soapy, shimmering with a bright overlay of something close to gasoline fumes. (If this doesn't appeal to you, don't worry-- it evaporates quick enough, though not so quickly that it evades the notice of female gearheads.) The clean soapy quality is soon joined by a pleasantly dirty licorice-cedar accord, as if our dream mechanic came home reeking of an honest day's work and is now towelling off after a quick shower. Hints of Lava Pumice Soap and shaving cream still cling to his skin, mingling with his own natural musk and creating the air of a healthy masculine specimen.

As the drydown approaches, a note of mace finally begins to assert itself. Mace and its sibling spice nutmeg share many olfactory traits, but temperature is not one of them. Where nutmeg lends a certain coolness to a fragrance, mace offers a sense of low, steady heat like a lit charcoal pastille-- at first glimmering like an ember in the background, then catching on and increasing by degrees to a fiery red glow. (Perhaps our mechanic is a little sweaty, even after his shower; he's heading out to the shady backyard to relax in the hammock with an ice-cold bottle of beer.)

This mace note is one that I admire immensely. It's everything I love about nutmeg, only more so-- amped up and ramped up, holding firm with no shimmy at fourth gear. It radiates animal contentment and self-confidence, and at the same time, harmonizes with that motor-oil note to keep it nicely in check.

Body Kouros brings new meaning to the word "serviceable". Free of pretensions and frills, it conceals no secret layers. Yet it projects a dependability and steadiness of character that are far more valuable than so-called elegance. Above all, Body Kouros is classless in the best sense of the word-- egalitarian, unconstrained by matters of status or appearance. Wear it as a second skin to feel supremely at home in your own.

Scent Elements: Aldehydes, artemisia, coriander, clary sage, cinnamon, bergamot, carnation, iris, jasmine, geranium, patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver, honey, leather, tonka, labdanum, ambergris, musk, civet, vanilla (Kouros); incense, eucalyptus, cedarwood, mace, camphorwood, benzoin (Body Kouros)

[mattydemise]

An advertisement for Yves Saint Laurent Kouros, 1980s.

[eucanthos]

Aristodikos Kouros

Κούρος Αριστοδίκου

The last kouros (naked youths) sculptural series, 510-500 B.C. Parian marble 1,90 m (without base) Collection National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Funerary Kouros, found in Attica's inland on the tomb of Aristodikos, a young Athenian aristocrat.

A key work in the development of sculpture, marking the transition between the end from the archaic era and the classical era.

The plastic rendering of the muscles, the movement of the arms and the general vigor of the statue places it at the end of the kouroi series

http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/4/eh430.jsp?obj_id=4583

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NAMA_3938_Aristodikos_Kouros.JPG

https://www.lifo.gr/culture/arxaiologia/i-istoria-toy-koyroy-aristodikoy-poy-stathike-orosimo-tis-ellinikis-tehnis