Marble female figure

Technical analysis: Multiband imaging, X-ray radiography, optical microscopy


The figure is carved from white fine-grained, heteroblastic marble particularly rich in black iron oxides and mica inclusions. The calcite grains are weathered preferentially along the grain boundaries, more heavily on the back than on the front. Over much of the surface is a fine layer of yellow-ochre color accretions. The statuette is repaired in the lower proper right leg at the knee and in the calf and in the connection between the two feet. The proper right foot is restored and there are modern fills and inpainting over the repairs as well as over the proper left foot and ankle. Across the stomach is a shallow crack.


The figure is a relatively characteristic example of the Kapsala type, which is the earliest of the canonical folded arm figures of the Early Cycladic II period. The figure reclines with gently sloping feet, the head slightly tilted back, the arms crossed diagonally over the abdomen. The head is large with a pointed chin and a prominent nose – the only facial feature indicated sculpturally. The neck is thick and long and the shoulders narrow, as is typical of this type. The breasts are small but prominent, while no particular emphasis is given to the pubic area. The legs are long and relatively slender, the calves quite plastically modeled at the back. There is no indication of the spine but the fingers are incised giving prominence to the hands, which are subtly modeled, and to the belly beneath them.


Seán Hemingway, Dorothy Abramitis, Federico Carò