Marble female figure

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
























































This well-proportioned reclining female figure, with a flat back and slightly bent knees, has minor losses at the right elbow and feet, as well as repaired breaks at the waist, neck and right foot. The two latter joins were reinforced with metal pins. Its broad-cheeked oval head is tilted back with a prominent chin and a delicate nose in low relief. It is carved from a fine-grained (maximum grain size = 1.2 mm), heteroblastic marble. Close observation reveals that there is a large almond-shaped eye with a circular pupil on the left side of the face extending onto the nose, and resulting from the partial loss of the orange patina that covers the marble. (1) There may also be a smaller eye on the right side of the face.





The long, slender upward tapering neck sits atop the figure’s sharply squared shoulders without delineation. The upper arms are fully modeled and the forearms, folded left over right, compress up toward the pointed, fully sculpted breasts. There are no indications of fingers. The belly is soft and slightly rounded and neither pubic triangle nor genitalia are indicated. Instead, a single horizontal groove delineates the bottom of the belly from the figure’s long fully rendered thighs. A single, deep vertical groove defines the semi-detached legs. The slightly arched feet are joined at the ankle and slightly splay outward. The flat back is featureless.

The Kapsala type with its distinctive narrow shoulders is the earliest of the figures that uses the four-part symmetrical canon to execute the form. It is named for the cemetery on the island of Amorgos where the type was recovered in early controlled excavation. This figure is comparable to those attributed to the Kontoleon sculptor, named for the archaeologist who recovered two similar examples in a grave in Naxos. (2)

Sandy MacGillivray, Dorothy Abramitis and Linda Borsch

(1) This appears to be the result of scrapes in the patina rather than differential weathering.

(2) See Getz-Gentle, Pat. 2001. Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture. pp. 67-69, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.