There are several unfinished statues now in the National Museum at Athens which seem not to have attracted as yet the attention they deserve. Whatever be the reason which has led the ancient sculptor to leave them unfinished, they are full of instruction to the modern student. In them we almost seem to see the artist at his work, and to be admitted to his studio. Even if they were given up because of a flaw or a mistake, that very mistake may teach us more as to the methods of the artist than many a completed statue. Fortunately, also, these unfinished statues in Athens illustrate various periods, from the archaic to one which is certainly later than the finest; and thus we are able to see what changes, if any, took place in the technique of sculpture during this interval, and, above all, we are not forced to generalize as to Greek sculpture from isolated examples of only one place or period.Our first example (Fig. 1) is a statue about ⅔ of life size, which was seen by Ross (Inselreise, I. p. 41) lying just below the quarries at Naxos, where he saw also the well-known colossal unfinished statue. There can therefore be little doubt as to the place where it was made; it was evidently never finished, perhaps because the sculptor saw his proportions would not come right, and so remained where it was, until it was transported to the National Museum at Athens. It happens most fortunately that this statue is—or was going to be—a typical example of the first period of Greek sculpture.