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Lot Essay
Although rarely preserved, most Cycladic sculpture of the Spedos Variety would have originally been richly painted in black, red and blue pigment. As P. Getz-Preziosi informs (Sculptors of the Cyclades, Individual and Tradition in the Third Millennium B.C., London, 2001, p.56), '...to the Early Bronze Age islander the color probably had a powerful magical meaning' and may 'reflect the way the faces of the dead were painted for burial' (p. 55 op. cit.). More often, however, the only trace is a paint ghost - a smoother part of the surface or the outline of a painted feature that looks as if it has been rendered in low relief. The pigment applied in those areas protected the marble surface from the erosion suffered by the rest of the figurine and so appears smoother, lighter in colour and slightly raised in comparison to the uncoloured areas.
The left breast is noticeably higher than the right and the inner grooves of the upper arms are also slightly unequal in height. These anomalies are unlikely to be deliberate or made through carelessness but more likely as a result of lack of ambidexterity. According to P. Getz-Gentle (Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture, Wisconsin, 2001, p. 43) 'such asymmetries and others are indeed present on virtually all Cycladic figures', as 'except possibly for a small minority of ambidextrous people, it is only natural to be unable to produce a truly bilaterally symmetrical image of any complexity without artificial aids, or at least without the benefit of considerable drawing practice, which was a luxury the Early Bronze Age artist did not have'.
The left breast is noticeably higher than the right and the inner grooves of the upper arms are also slightly unequal in height. These anomalies are unlikely to be deliberate or made through carelessness but more likely as a result of lack of ambidexterity. According to P. Getz-Gentle (Personal Styles in Early Cycladic Sculpture, Wisconsin, 2001, p. 43) 'such asymmetries and others are indeed present on virtually all Cycladic figures', as 'except possibly for a small minority of ambidextrous people, it is only natural to be unable to produce a truly bilaterally symmetrical image of any complexity without artificial aids, or at least without the benefit of considerable drawing practice, which was a luxury the Early Bronze Age artist did not have'.