Sculpture Head of an Idol

Hand-patinated resin reproduction.

This marble head of a Cycladic idol, found on the small island of Keros, in the heart of the Cyclades, is currently kept in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities of the Louvre Museum.

The original probably belonged to a statuette of a naked woman...

Hand-patinated resin reproduction.

This marble head of a Cycladic idol, found on the small island of Keros, in the heart of the Cyclades, is currently kept in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities of the Louvre Museum.

The original probably belonged to a statuette of a naked woman, with her arms crossed under her breasts, in a slightly arched position, with her head slightly tilted backwards; at least this is how most of the statuettes belonging to the same group are presented, that is to say, to the "art of ancient Sphedos" which corresponds to the civilization of the "Ancient Cycladic II", situated around the middle of the third millennium.

This series is characterized, especially in the case of the heads, by an almost oval shape where only the protrusion of the nose is marked, while the bodies, by force of circumstance, escape more from the abstraction and present traits of realism a little more marked.

Statuettes of this kind are found in fairly large numbers in the Cycladic tombs of these remote periods of the Bronze Age; rather than "idols", as was believed for a long time, they perhaps symbolize the dead man or his companion.