Cycladic female figurine (post-canonical type)

By the end of the Early Cycladic II period sculptors distanced themselves from the canons and conventions that had prevailed for some five hundred years in Cycladic art. The figurines of this final phase - late examples of the "Chalandriani variety" (so named after an extensive cemetery on Syros) and of the canonical type in general - have been dubbed "post-canonical" and are characterized by marked schematization and the perfunctory treatment of individual anatomical details. The canonical arrangement of the arms (left over right) no longer obtains and the position is sometimes reversed, as here (right over left) or the arms are confronted or obliquely placed. The head is rendered as a triangular plaque set slanting on the neck, while the legs are disproportionately short and straight, with rudimentary formation of the feet. In some cases features on the head are incised or modelled in relief. Most "post-canonical" figurines represent females, although some males also exist. With the exception of one example in lead, they are all of marble and range in height from 7 to 36 cm.