Fragmentary female figure with painted outline of eyes
Medium:Painted marble
Geography: Cyclades, Greece
Date: about 2500-2400 BCE
Period: Greek Early Bronze Age, Early Cycladic II period
Object number: 2000.106.115
Credit Line: Gift of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum. Certified by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act. Attestée par la Commission canadienne d'examen des exportations de biens culturels en vertu de la Loi sur l'exportation et l'importation de biens culturels.
Gallery Location:Gallery of the Bronze Age Aegean
DescriptionThis head is a fragment of a female folded-arm figure with an estimated length of about 46 cm. She has a long lyre-shaped head. The widening at the top is to be interpreted as a hairpiece set upon the crown of the head. The Cycladic canon seems to have required that the head normally be shown only with a nose. It was rare that any other facial feature be indicated in relief. The outlines of the eyes and pupils are faintly visible and could easily be mistaken for relief work; in fact, they are actually paint ghosts.
