5.1: The Aegean Bronze Age
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Sculpture of the Cyclades
Cycladic art during the Greek Bronze Age is noted for its abstract, geometric designs of male and female figures.
Learning Objectives
Discuss the form and function of the Cycladic marble figurines
Key Takeaways
Key Points
- The Cyclades are a chain of Greek islands in the middle of the Aegean Sea. They encircle the island of Delos.
- Cycladic marble figurines of abstract male and female forms have been found at burial sites. These figurines are small, abstract, and rely on geometric shapes and flat plans for their design and would have been painted.
- The female figurines depict a woman with her legs together and arms folded over her abdomen, with her breasts and pubic region emphasized.
- The male figures are often depicted sitting in a chair and playing a harp or a lyre .
Key Terms
- incised :To mark or cut the surface of an object for decoration.
- Cycladic :Of, or relating to the Cyclades.
The Cyclades are a group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea that encircle the island of Delos. The islands were known for their white marble, mined during the Greek Bronze Age and throughout Classical history.
Their geographical location placed them, like the island of Crete, in the center of trade between Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Near East. The indigenous civilization on the Cyclades reached its high point during the Bronze Age. The islands were later occupied by the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and later the Greeks.
Cycladic Sculptures
Cycladic art is best known for its small-scale, marble figurines. From the late fourth millennium BCE to the early second millennium BCE, Cycladic sculptures went through a series of stylistic shifts, with their bodily forms varying from geometric to organic. The purpose of these figurines is unknown, although all that have been discovered were located in graves. While it is clear that they were regularly used in funerary practices, their precise function remains a mystery.
Some are found in graves completely intact, others are found broken into pieces, others show signs of being used during the lifetime of the deceased, but some graves do not contain the figurines. Furthermore, the figurines were buried equally between men and women. The male and female forms do not seem to be identified with a specific gender during burial. These figures are based in simple geometric shapes.
Cycladic Female Figures
The abstract female figures all follow the same mold. Each is a carved statuette of a nude woman with her arms crossed over her abdomen. The bodies are roughly triangular and the feet are kept together. The head of the women is an inverted triangle with a rounded chin and the nose of the figurine protrudes from the center.
Each figure has modeled breasts, and incised lines draw attention to the pubic region with a triangle. The swollen bellies on some figurines might indicate pregnancy or symbolic fertility. The incised lines also provide small details, such as toes on the feet, and to delineate the arms from each other and the stomach.
Their flat back and inability to stand on their carved feet suggest that these figures were meant to lie down. While today they are featureless and remain the stark white of the marble, traces of paint allow us to know that they were once colored. Paint would have been applied on the face to demarcate the eyes, mouth, and hair. Dots were used to decorate the figures with bracelets and necklaces.
Cycladic Male Figures
Male figures are also found in Cycladic grave sites. These figures differ from the females, as the male typically sits on a chair and plays a musical instrument, such as the pipes or a harp. Harp players, like the one in the example below, play the frame harp, a Near Eastern ancestor of the modern harp.
The figures, their chairs, and instruments are all carved into elegant, cylindrical shapes. Like the female figures, the shape of the male figure is reliant on geometric shapes and flat planes . The incised lines provide details (such as toes), and paint added distinctive features to the now-blank faces.
Other Cycladic Figures
While reclining female and seated male figurines are the most common Cycladic sculptures discovered, other forms were produced, such as animals and abstracted humanoid forms. Examples include the terra cotta figurines of bovine animals (possibly oxen or bulls) that date to 2200–2000 BCE, and small, flat sculptures that resemble female figures shaped like violins; these date to the Grotta–Pelos culture , also known as Early Cycladic I (c. 3300–2700 BCE). Like other Cycladic sculptures discovered to date, the purposes of these figurines remain unknown.
- Curation and Revision. Provided by : Boundless.com. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- 640px-MuseAckrotiriItem70-6643-wpd.jpg. Provided by : Wikimedia Commons. Located at : commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2488131. License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
- 640px-Violin-shaped_female_cycladic_figurines.jpg. Provided by : Wikimedia Commons. Located at : commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23106250. License : CC BY: Attribution
- Cycladic harp player. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cycladic_harp_player.jpg. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Goulandris Master - Cycladic Female Figurine - Walters 23253. Provided by : Wikimedia. Located at : commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goulandris_Master_-_Cycladic_Female_Figurine_-_Walters_23253.jpg. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Nomos Kykladon. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nomos_Kykladon.png. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Female Figure of the Late Spedos Type. Provided by : The J. Paul Getty Museum. Located at : http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/13046/attributed-to-the-schuster-master-female-figure-of-the-late-spedos-type-cycladic-about-2400-bc/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
- History of the Cyclades. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Cyclades%23Cycladic_civilisation. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Cycladic art. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycladic_art. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Cycladic civilization. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycladic_civilization. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Cyclades. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclades. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- incised. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/incised. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Cycladic. Provided by : Wiktionary. Located at : en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cycladic. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Male Harp Player of the Early Spedos Type. Provided by : The J. Paul Getty Museum. Located at : http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/10949/unknown-maker-male-harp-player-of-the-early-spedos-type-cycladic-2700-2300-bc/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
- Grotta-Pelos Culture. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotta-Pelos_culture. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike