Dame d'Auxerre

The Lady of Auxerre, made by an unknown sculptor in 640–620 BCE, is in the Louvre in Paris. This limestone woman stands with one hand against her chest and the other at her side; traces of colour survive on the stone. A Louvre curator found her in storage at the Auxerre museum in 1907, without a known excavation history. She is currently displayed in room 170, Denon wing, level -1.

The relatively small (75 cm high) limestone Cretan sculpture called the Lady of Auxerre (or Kore of Auxerre), held at the Louvre Museum in Paris, depicts an archaic Greek goddess of c. 650 - 625 BCE. It is a Kore ("maiden"), perhaps a votary rather than the maiden Goddess Persephone herself, for her right hand touches her solar plexus and her left remains stiffly at her side (Basel 2001). It is also possible that the Kore is a depiction of a deceased individual, possibly in a position of prayer.