Lady of Auxerre

Thesis: The Lady of Auxerre was a statue that was believed to be sculpted in 630 B.C.E and linked to a town in Crete. 

Civilization Bio: It is not known for sure where the Lady Auxerre was built, but some have tracked the limestone to be the type they would use in Crete in 630 BCE. In 630 BCE they believed in very "high culture" and the Cretan “Renaissance” was in play. It was one of the earliest stages which made Crete a pioneer in art and culture. 

Visual Analysis: This piece was known to be a Daedalic style. The word Daedalic can come from many other words, but I believe it comes from the word the word Daedalus. Daedalus was a mythological architect of the Minoan labyrinth and inventor of wings from mythology. Daedalic is most commonly used with terracotta so this was a special piece being that it was made out of limestone. The features of this statute show a rigidness, flatness, and usually the pieces have triangular faces, low brows, big noses, bulging eyes, missing ears, and flat skulls. Lady Auxerre is made of yellow limestone and is 75 cm in height. The right side of her face is diminished due to the fragile limestone. There are some elements of art in this piece, vertical and horizontal lines form her hair, and vertical lines all the way from her hips to her feet. The sculptor adapted the style of hair from the Egyptian culture of women. The figure was ill-shaped, as the lower part of her body was lengthier with extremely long legs than her upper body. Her right hand is settled in the center of her chest, while her left hand rests on the side of her body.

Summary: There are several different interpretations of this piece. Some say that it was supposed to symbol an archaic Greek goddess due to the right hand centered in her chest, others say she was a maiden of Ancient Greek.