Date

375 BC

Provenance

Roman marble copy in Munich.

Material

Bronze? Marble? Only marble copy survives.

Attribution

Kephisodotus, father of Praxiteles.

Authenticity

Roman marble copy of a Greek original.

Subject Matter

Abstract subject – personification of the idea that peace is the mother of wealth.

A city state can only achieve wealth through agriculture and trade in peacetime.

Anatomy

Eirene

Long wavy hair, with ringlets and hair rolling off the forehead, identical to Caryatids.

Realistic soft face tilted to look tenderly at the baby.

Pierced ears?

The peplos obscures most of her figure.

Ploutos

Thick head of hair.

Hair carefully double arranged in a double row of curls.

Pattern and Proportion

Baby’s proportions are incorrect. He is shown as a miniature shrunken adult, rather than a real baby. Head should be large, relative to its body, and can’t put its arms above head.

Hairstyles form the main source of pattern, as do the drapery folds on the peplos.

Catenary folds across the chest and columnar folds on the skirt.

Eirene 1:7 head to body ratio.

Pose and Realism

Eirene is in the relaxed pose – her left leg is weight bearing and her right leg bent.

Her shoulders are not at the same height – contrapposto?

Eirene’s head is tilted to face the baby who looks up at her.

Drapery

Eirene wears a woollen peplos – belted with a pouch effect where the material is pulled over the belt.

Similar to peploi of the Caryatids – some inconsistency in thickness.

The baby is wrapped in a shawl/blanket which hangs off him.

Emotion

Peaceful, serene, tender, sentimental, calm.

Maternal love, relationship between a mother and baby, not two separate people.