Despite being set up in the heart of Athens, this figure shows a character slightly different to the Attic (from Attica, around Athens) style. The physique is slender and elongated, the face oval, and her garments are light; Attic korai tend to be stockier. This style is associated with the islands of the eastern Aegean sea, Chios in particular. It seems to have been common for sixth-century BCE artists to move all over the Greek world executing commissions.
Her clothing is unusual in that she seems to wear just one long garment, a chiton. The result is a loose, wavy-patterned top part pinned on the arms, with a lower half pulled tight over her legs and held in a bunch at the front. It has been argued that these are two separate garments, but it is more likely that a long overhanging fold conceals a belt at the waist. On the original sculpture this chiton was lavishly painted in red and green, with stars and meander patterns
Athens Acropolis Museum 670
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 78 (n.1), pl. 23.3
Schrader: Archaischen Marmorbildwerke des Akropolis (1939), 50-
Payne & Young: Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis, 35-
Dickins: Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum I, 205-
Stewart: Greek Sculpture, 123 & 124, pl. 153
Karakasi: Archaic Korai (2003), 118
From the Acropolis, Athens