ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art

Female "Idol"

CultureCycladic

PeriodEarly Cycladic

Dateca. 2500-2400 BCE

MediumMarble, pigment

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions2 1/4 x 11 x 3/4 x 2 1/4" (5.7 x 27.9 x 1.9 x 5.7 cm)

Object number2003.011.002

Label TextFor a period extending over one thousand years, from approximately 3200 until 2200 BC, the late Neolithic and bronze age inhabitants of the Cyclades worked local marble into vessels and sculpture in human form. Apart from a few representations of musicians and nude males, almost all Cycladic figural sculpture depicts women. This statuette gives a nude female figure, her arms folded across her chest, her right (as always) below her left. Her lower legs and feet are not preserved, but her feet would have been inclined downwards. From this we may infer either that the figure was intended to lie down, or was mounted for display, or perhaps was intended to be carried. The significance or functions of these sculptures, created in a preliterate society, is necessarily unknown beyond the fact that most have been recovered from graves, although some have also been found in settlements. Some female figures appear to be pregnant, prompting the suggestion that they may have been votive offerings to facilitate childbirth, or commemorative grave goods for women who lost their lives giving birth.

The rendering of the body is highly schematic: the face, for example, is articulated only by a prominent nose. The sculpture is enhanced with incision for the neck, spine and genitals; and with pigment-dots on the cheeks, and further traces in the incision. The red (cinnabar) has discolored over time to black. The differences in the colors of the marble between the body and the neck are the result either of somewhat different circumstances of burial (moisture, acidity) or of modern cleaning rather than because the two parts do not belong.

The sensuous refinement of these figures, particularly the elegant curvature of the heads, was much admired, even imitated, by modern artists, among them Pablo Picasso, Amadeo Modigliani, Henry Moore and Constantin Brancusi.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - September 2006
Ancient Art of the Cyclades, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, October 2006 - July 2007
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, July 2007 - June 19, 2014
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, July 2014 - Present
Published ReferencesSotheby's New York, Antiquities (December 11, 2002), front cover, 14-15, lot 10.
Brooks Barnes, "Art and Money: Old Money," The Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2003.
MCCM Newsletter, March - May 2003.
Jasper Gaunt, "New Galleries of Greek & Roman Art at Emory University: The Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (January/February 2005): 13-17.
Pat Getz-Gentle, Ancient Art of the Cyclades (Katonah, New York: Katonah Museum of Art, 2006), catalogue 29.

ProvenanceWith Mathias Komor (1909-1984), New York, New York, number H 566. Ex coll. Mathilda Goldman (1906-2001), New York, New York. Thence by descent. With Christie's New York, Fall 2001. Purchased by MCCM from Sotheby's New York, December 11, 2002, lot 10.

Status

On view

Collections