Athena Promachos

Statuette of Athena Promachos
About 470 BCE. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

This statuette is the most faithful reproduction of the statue erected by archon Hippocleides, in 566 BCE at the time of the Panathenaia festival.
We can distinguished two dresses under the himation pleaten to the knees, while behind we can see the long aegis that reveals the curve of the Goddess's back. It should be covered with a leaf of gold
The top of the Attic helmet is derived from the motif of the swan neck.
The whole statue is sculpted for only a point of view.
The opposition that exists among the severe face, that places this work about 470 BCE, and the schematism of the dress pleats has been explained due to a certain archaic taste understandable in an official work.

Athena Shrine