( fl Athens, c. 530–c. 510 BC). Greek sculptor. A statue base signed by Antenor, son of Eumares, and indicating a dedication by Nearchos (perhaps the potter of that name who was working in the 560s BC) has been matched almost certainly with an outstanding kore found on the Acropolis of Athens in 1886 and hence called the Kore of Antenor (h. incl. plinth 2.15 m; Athens, Acropolis Mus., 681). The kore is a conservative work of c. 520 BC. Both arms are held unusually far from the body, which is powerfully modelled, the strong vertical folds of its himation (cloak) giving a columnar effect. Such features as the inlaid eyes and thin ankles betray a bronze worker: Pausanias (Guide to Greece I.viii.5) recorded that Antenor produced bronze statues of the tyrannicides Harmodios and Aristogeiton, which were carried off by Xerxes in 480/479 BC and replaced by KRITIOS AND NESIOTES’ famous group. The Antenor statues remained at Persepolis until Alexander the Great or one of his successors returned them to Athens, where they were placed in the Agora alongside the second group. A Roman head (London, BM) is perhaps a copy of Antenor’s Harmodios. The generally accepted date for the group is 510 BC (following Pliny: Natural History XXXIV.xix.70), although the years after 488 BC have also been suggested. Resemblances between the Kore of Antenor and the architectural korai of the Archaic Temple of Apollo at DELPHI (?after 510 BC) have led to an association of Antenor with the latter project.

• Antenor
  • copies
    • Athens, §II, 2(ii): Agora: Sculpture
  • works
    • Delphi, §2(i): Archaic sculpture
    • Eumaros
    • Greece, ancient, §IV, 1(v)(a): Monumental sculpture: Craftsmen and society
    • Greece, ancient, §IV, 2(iii)(a): Early Classical monumental sculpture
    • Kritios and Nesiotes
    • Vase painters, §II: Nearchos