Kora of Sicyon

Kora or Callirhoe (circa 650 B.C., Sicyon, ancient Greece) was the daughter of Butades of Sicyon. Butades and Kora are credited with the invention of modeling in relief. In Pliny the Elder's Natural History (A.D. 77) and other ancient sources, the story goes that Kora drew the profile of a man she loved on the wall with charcoal. Based upon this outline, her father modeled the face of the man in clay, thus creating the first relief.

The relief created from Kora's outline was preserved at the Nymphaeum in Corinth for almost 200 years, before it was destroyed by fire.