Cycladic Idol - Spedos Type

Catalogue Image: 2015-00-00
Catalogue Image

2015-00-00

Name/Title

Cycladic Idol - Spedos Type

Entry/Object ID

77A0813

Description

Standing female figure. Arms crossed against chest.

Type of Sculpture

Statue

Artwork Details

Medium

Resin

Context

This highly abstracted figure is the creation of a pre-Hellenic population of the Cycladic Islands in the second or third millennium BC. Most such figures are female, dubbed fertility goddesses with more imagination than evidence. There are, in fact, also a few male figures of the same type. The latter are difficult to classify and have no label attached to them as yet. The function of the figures was perhaps religious as well as funerary--as the great number discovered in graves seems to indicate. This figure was done with great sensitivity. Its flatness suggests two-dimensionality while the incurvations, slight protuberances and incisions suggest three-dimensionality.

Made/Created

Date made

2700 BCE - 2300 BCE

Time Period

Bronze Age

Ethnography

Culture/Tribe

Greek - Cycladic

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Overall

Height

42.5 cm

Width

13 cm

Depth

8 cm

Research Notes

Research Type

Researcher

Notes

Gill, David W.J. 1993. Material and Intellectual Consequences of Esteem for Cycladic Figures. American Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 97, pp. 601-659. Public: No

Research Type

Researcher

Notes

Getz-Gentle, Pat. 1987. Early Cycladic Marble Art. Archaeology. Vol. 40, pp. 64-67 Public: No

Research Type

Researcher

Notes

Hoffman, Gail L. 2002. Painted Ladies: Early Cycladic II Mourning Figures? American Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 106 no.4, pp. 525-550 Public: No

Research Type

Researcher

Notes

Renfrew, Colin. 1986. A New Cycladic Sculpture. Antiquity. Vol. 60, pp. 132-134 Public: No