Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, Band 80/2011, pp. 13-46, 2024/10/08
In this article, the author sets out to define the specific concept of ›realism‹ as materialised in Archaic Greek sculpture. First, he shows how current archaeological literature fails to address the issue inherent in this
problematic notion by solely emphasising the lack of realism in Archaic imagery. In the main part of the article, he then analyses the depiction of drapery in archaic korai in order to show how archaic sculpture evades the sorts of underlying antitheses which modern scholarship assumes: figurative depiction versus
ornamental abstraction; concrete individuality versus general, ideal types; lifelikeness versus stiff perfection. In all these cases, Archaic sculpture turns out to align with both sides of the assumed dichotomy. In the final section, the author tries to outline some basic elements of an alternative, archaic concept of ›realism‹ i. e. its anti-empirical character; its mingling of the realms of image and text; the license for contradiction
between different elements of the depiction.
