On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.

Marble female figure

Cycladic

ca. 2500–2400/2300 BCE

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 151

Technical analysis: Multiband imaging, X-ray radiography, raking light examination, optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy

This female figure was broken horizontally at the upper neck, across the chest, and at the waist with losses along the outside of the left arm. The breakage was filled and overpainted. The lower legs and feet are not preserved. The elongated shield-shaped head with rounded chin and crown is tilted backward. It has a fine long and narrow, well-centered nose. Ghosts of two large, almond-shaped eyes with small solid pupils and traces of eyebrows are evident. There are also possible traces of zig-zags running down both sides of the face. Technical analyses have revealed traces of cinnabar in the area of the mouth and the back of the head, and of red ochre in the groove of the front legs. The long, elegant, tapered neck stems from angular sloping shoulders. Deep grooves define the pronounced arms that fold left over right (without fingers) and curve over a slightly swollen belly (perhaps indicating pregnancy) and below a broad chest with highly placed and widely separated conical, rounded breasts. At the back, an incised v-shaped groove delineates the neck from the arching torso. A single incised line denotes the spine above the figure’s lightly protruding, pointed buttocks. Thin, incised lines define the pubic triangle with the vulva broadening out into a deep incision that indicates co-joined legs with slightly bent knees. A deep incision indicates co-joined legs at the back.

Sandy MacGillivray, Dorothy Abramitis, Federico Carò, and Elizabeth Hendrix