Head of an Ephebe

The style of this head indicates that it was sculpted around 447 to 432 B.C., during the second half of the Classic period.

This head shows how the portrayal of man evolved from the beginning of the archaic era to this phase of the Classic period. The delicate arch of the eyebrows, the refined elegance of the hair curls, the firm line of the nose, and the graceful expression of the entire face reflect this tendency, which was to reach its height in the second half of the fourth century when the final step was taken and the Greek image of ideal man gave way to that of the individual. This movement was due to changes in the concept of life.
The classic intellectual approach, focused entirely on the universal, was replaced by a reasoned observation of the real. This admirable head still expresses the classic ideal but also reveals the irreversible progress made from the archaic kouros towards the rich expressiveness of realistic observation.