Male figures are rare in Cycladic art. Even less common are examples like this one that exhibit both male and female features. The carved hair (usually painted on female statuettes) and pronounced genitalia are characteristically male, but the artist followed the same overall form used for contemporary female representations, including the clearly defined breasts. Figures of ambiguous gender are found in Aegean sculpture as early as the fifth millennium bce, but their meaning is unknown.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Marble male figure
Period:Early Cycladic II
Date:2400–2300 BCE or later
Culture:Cycladic
Medium:Marble
Dimensions:H. 14 1/8 in. (35.9 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971
Accession Number:1972.118.103
[By 1934 and until summer 1936, with Theodore Zoumpoulakis, Paris]; [Summer 1936, purchased by Joseph Brummer from Th. Zoumpoulakis]; [1936 -1937, with Joseph Brummer, New York (P13194)]; November 1937, purchased by Walter Cummings Baker from Joseph Brummer; 1937 -- 1972, collection of Walter C. Baker, New York; acquired in 1972, bequest of Walter C. Baker.
von Bothmer, Dietrich and René d'Harnoncourt. 1950. Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: An Exhibition from the Collection of Walter Cummings Baker, Esq. no. 51, p. 10, New York: Walter Cummings Baker.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1961. Ancient Art from New York Private Collections: Catalogue of an Exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 17, 1959–February 28, 1960. no. 91, p. 20, pl. 26, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Thimme, Jürgen. 1976. Kunst und Kultur der Kykladeninseln im 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr.: Ausstellung unter d. Patronat des International Council of Museums ICOM im Karlsruher Schloss vom 25. Juni-10. Oktober 1976. no. 246, p. 487, Karlsruhe: Müller.
Getz-Preziosi, Pat. 1980. "The Male Figure in Early Cycladic Sculpture." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 15: no. 33, pp. 5, 25, 27–28, figs. 49, 58–60.
Getz-Preziosi, Pat. 1985. Early Cycladic Sculpture: An Introduction. p. 39, fig. 19, Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Getz-Preziosi, Pat. 1987. Early Cycladic Art in North American Collections. p. 220, no. 64, Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Getz-Preziosi, Pat. 1987. Sculptors of the Cyclades: Individual and Tradition in the Third Millennium B.C.. p.16, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Gill, David and Christopher Chippindale. 1993. "Material and Intellectual Consequences of Esteem for Cycladic Figurines." American Journal of Archaeology, 97(4): p. 618, tbl. 7.
Getz-Preziosi, Pat. 1994. Early Cycladic Sculpture: An Introduction (Revised ed.). p. 39, fig. 19, Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Hendrix, Elizabeth. 1997. "Painted Ladies of the Early Bronze Age." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 55(3): pp. 8–9, figs. 6–7.
Mertens, Joan R. 1998. "Some Long Thoughts on Early Cycladic Sculpture." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 33: pp. 11–12, fig. 8.
Mertens, Joan R. 1998. "Some Long Thoughts on Early Cycladic Sculpture." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 33: pp. 11–12, fig. 8.
Christou, Sandra. 2012. Sexually Ambiguous Imagery in Cyprus from the Neolithic to the Cypro-Archaic Period, BAR International, 2329. p. 25, fig. 4.29, Oxford: Archaeopress.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
