Louise Termignon
Stock Inventory and Discovery Sale Coordinator
Lot 74
IDOLE CYCLADIQUE FÉMININE EN MARBRE
Variété de Spédos, Cycladique ancien II, ca. 2600-2400 av. J.C.
12 December 2025, 11:00 CET
Paris, Avenue Hoche€60,000 - €80,000
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Siobhan Quin
Senior Specialist
Joanna van der Lande
Consultant
IDOLE CYCLADIQUE FÉMININE EN MARBRE
Variété de Spédos, Cycladique ancien II, ca. 2600-2400 av. J.C.
Variété de Spédos, Cycladique ancien II, ca. 2600-2400 av. J.C.
A CYCLADIC MARBLE FEMALE FIGURE
Spedos Variety, Early Cycladic II, circa 2600-2400 B.C.
(Repairs and infill to the neck and one leg)
17.7 cm (7 in.) high
Footnotes
The meaning and purpose of Cycladic figures have remained a mystery since they were re-discovered in the late 19th Century. The Bronze Age culture of the Cycladic Islands flourished from 3000-2000 B.C. The almost abstract carved marble figures have been found largely in funerary contexts but also as fragments in deposits on the island of Keros. Most of the figures represent stylised women and theories of their significance abound, including suggestions that they were fertility figures, a Bronze Age version of Aphrodite, or toys, revered ancestors, protective amulets or the goddess of childbirth. This however does not explain the male versions which include musicians and hunter-warriors. What is apparent is that the figures were often worn, re-painted, broken and repaired suggesting a lifetime of use rather than just serving a funerary function. Although the significance of Cycladic figures remains enigmatic it may be they fulfilled several of the above suggested purposes.
Provenance
Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities et al., Sotheby's, London, 4 December 1972, lot 176.
Private collection, Belgium, acquired at the above sale. Recorded in a 1985 insurance document.
For examples of figures of females of the Spedos variety with similarities, cf. J. Thimme (ed.), Art and Culture of the Cyclades, Chicago, 1977, pp. 257 and 267, no. 144 and no. 162. Within the Spedos type there are variations perhaps because they were made on different islands, cf. Greek Art of the Aegean Islands, Exhibition catalogue,The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979, pp 54-61.