Marble female figure

Technical analysis: Multiband imaging, optical microscopy

This completely intact, white marble figure depicts a short, squat female figure standing with legs apart and hands that meet below the chest. The flat, lyre-shaped head has a deeply undercut, rounded chin and a relatively flat crown. A long nose carved in relief at the center of face extends from beneath the brow. A v-shaped incision at the front and back of the figure denotes the base of the figure’s thick, long neck that slightly tapers upward. The back has no other distinguishing features. Rounded shoulders slope into dough-like arms, and incised lines delineate the wrists and hands with six incised fingers each. The irregular pubic triangle is indicated by two uneven shallow incisions above the figure’s rudimentary legs.


The surface of the marble is eroded along calcite grain boundaries giving it a sugary appearance. It is covered with a thin, pinkish-beige accretion with a few reddish particles scattered throughout. There are a few darker accretions in the pattern of rootlets on the right side of the upper back. Scratches and abraded areas expose the white stone, though some of these areas have been in-painted. This unique figure could be an experimental work by an unskilled craftsman.


Sandy MacGillivray, Dorothy Abramitis and Federico Carò