Marble female figure

Technical analysis: Ultraviolet-induced visible light luminescence examination


This reclining female figure is complete with mended breaks at the upper right calf, the leg-cleft and the left knee. It has a flat back and bent knees. The lyre-shaped head is backward-tilted with a rounded chin, flat crown, and short, wide triangular centrally placed relief nose. The wide cylindrical neck is marked off from the torso by shallow rounded groove. It has deep sloping rounded shoulders, lightly sculpted arms folded left over right without fingers above a narrow belly and below a lightly sculpted bosom. A wide incision separates the belly from the waist with no indication of genitals. A deep incised groove indicates the co-joined legs that are bent at the knees and ankles. The outsplayed feet are joined at the ankles and have no indication of toes. Pat Getz-gentle attributes this figure to her Karo sculptor, named for archaeologist Georg Karo, on the basis of its broad and robust form with a soft and rounded quality.(1)


The surface of the upper half of the body suffered a more intense weathering than the loweAn half. An accretion is visible on the left side of the face and body.


Sandy MacGillivray, Wendy Walker


(1) See, Getz-Gentle, P. Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001, 70-71 pls. 60-61.