Cycladic female figurine (canonical type, Spedos variety), no. 1

Cycladic female figurine with all the traits attributed to the "Goulandris Master": lyre-shaped head with long triangular nose, markedly sloping shoulders, slim arms, small breasts set wide apart, incised waist, small pubic triangle, curvaceous buttocks. Traces of red pigment are preserved on the chest and the back of the head, by which the coiffure of the figurine was indicated. Apart from the "Goulandris Master", several other "masters" have been identified in Early Cycladic Art on the basis of common stylistic traits like the ones mentioned above; they are usually named conventionally after the museum or the city which hosts characteristic works by them, after the excavator who brought them to light, or after the collector who possesses them. Those "masters" are taken by some scholars to represent individual artists who worked in the Early Bronze Age Cyclades. Many researchers, however, dismiss these views as predicated on the existence of principles, aesthetic conceptions and social structures that are not consistent with the picture we have of Cycladic society in the third millennium BC. They, therefore, refute the idea of one or more "masters" and attribute the indisputable similarities that exist among figurines either to the existence of workshops or local traditions, or simply to the prevailing of specific artistic styles and trends in different periods.