Kore-Shaped Perfume Flask (525–500 BCE): Art, History and Details

Kore-Shaped Perfume Flask (525–500 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Mold-made in the form of a standing maiden, or kore, this vessel likely once held expensive perfumed oil. The figure, who might represent the goddess Aphrodite, holds a dove by her chest with one hand, and her pleated drapery in the other. Traces of red pigment hint at a much more vibrant original appearance.

Object facts

• Title: Kore-Shaped Perfume Flask
• Date: 525–500 BCE
• Culture: Greece, Rhodes
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 23 cm (9 1/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1926.518

A detail from the museum

In ancient Greece, doves were symbols of beauty and love, associated with the goddess Aphrodite.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Greek Sculptures in Terra-cotta," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 14, no. 2 (February 1927): 21-22

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.