Cycladic female figurine (Dokathismata variety of the canonical type)

This elegant figurine, representative of the "Dokathismata variety", thus named after a cemetery on Amorgos, is one of the masterpieces of Cycladic marble sculpting. The strict geometric structure, the harmonious proportions and the abstract quality epitomize those virtues that made Cycladic art a source of inspiration for important twentieth-century artists, such as Brancusi, Modigliani, Archipenko, Giacometti, Moore and Hepworth, and established it as one of the most distinctive forms of Western artistic expression. Figurines of this type range in height from 13 to 76 cm. and are almost exclusively female, with characteristic planar surfaces, triangular head, broad angular shoulders, almost straight legs, small pubic triangle and generally triangular outline. The slightly swollen abdomen and the curvaceous arm on the illustrated example have been considered in the past as conveying a state of pregnancy - a view disputed by many researchers. However, this particular variety of Cycladic figurine seems to stress those feminine attributes that are directly associated with fertility, reproduction and maternity (breasts, pudenda).