Figure of a male votary
Medium:Limestone with traces of red pigment
Geography: Excavated from the sanctuary of Apollo at Tamassos-Frangissa, Cyprus
Date: about 425 BC
Period: Cypro-Classical I
Object number: 958.61.326
Credit Line: Gift of the National Gallery of Canada
Gallery Location:A.G. Leventis Foundation Gallery of Ancient Cyprus
DescriptionCypriot sculptors did not have a local source for marble, so they turned to the island’s rich deposits of limestone skirting the Mesaoria Plain. Cities located there – such as Golgoi, Idalion, Arsos, and Tamassos – were producing limestone votive statues by the late 7th century BC. Limestone offered advantages over terracotta, including greater durability and better definition of details.
Cypriot sculpture was painted. The soft, chalky, and porous limestone material easily absorbed paint pigments – thus preserving traces of colours, often still visible today. Note the red paint remaining on the man’s lips and on his crinkled woolen chiton.
