Female Cycladic Figurine of the Spedos Variety bronze statue - SM052BR000016

Female figurine of the 'Folded arm' type. Handmade female FIGURINE on marble base.
The Cycladic figurines of this form represent female figures standing naked, with the arms folded below their chest.

Their abstract refined figure probably represents a great "Mother Goddess", symbol of fertility and rejuvenation.

The collection of Cycladic antiquities is one of the most important in the world. Cycladic civilization flourished on the islands of the central Aegean during the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC).

The most characteristic creation of this culture is the marble sculpture and it is not surprising that the abstract forms of the figurines influenced artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Brancusi, Modigliani, Giacometti, Hepworth, Moore and Ai Weiwei.

The “Spedos variety”, named after an Early Cycladic cemetery on Naxos, is the most prolific category of “canonical” figurines· it has the widest distribution within the Cyclades as well as elsewhere, and the greatest longevity.

The illustrated example displays the characteristic traits of the type: lyre-shaped head with wide forehead, angular shoulders, incisions indicating the arms, the pubic triangle and the joints, almost total lack of modelled features (e.g. breasts).

Many of the features regarded as female (such as the swollen belly, breasts, abdominal creases) are sometimes encountered on male figurines too.

These paradoxes may indicate a certain degree of carelessness in rendering particular anatomical details (for instance, the feet on this figurine have four toes each). However, the use of figurines may well have been more complex than we can imagine and the variety of types may reflect their different functions.

Female figurine of the type "With folded arms".
The Cycladic figurines of this form represent female figures standing naked, with the arms folded below their chest. Their abstract refined figure probably represents a great "Mother Goddess", symbol of fertility and rejuvenation.