New York Kouros

Gallery 154 Walk into the Greek and Roman wing and this marble youth from around 590 to 580 BCE stares straight past you, fists clenched and left foot forward, a little over 6 feet tall. He was carved in Attica from Naxian marble, and his stiff, striding pose invites a comparison with the Egyptian figures you saw an hour ago. Then picture the relaxed, lifelike statues the Greeks made later, and you are looking at an early chapter of Western sculpture in a single figure.