Grécia Antiga Mármore Ídolo do violino. Cíclades I, Cultura Grotta-Pelos, c. 3200 - 2700 AC. 7,5 cm de altura.

Violin Idol.

Greece, Early Cycladic I, Grotta-Pelos Culture, c. 3200 - 2700 BC.

Marble.

7.5 cm height.

Condition: Good state of preservation. The upper part has been lost.

Provenance: Private collection, Estepona, Málaga. Adquirido en el mercado del arte francés antes de 1980.

Description:

Finely worked in marble and now enriched with a beautiful patina that gives it a warm, almost vivid tone, this idol represents a schematic female figure. It is a complete torso, topped by a broad neck whose profile curves gently to form the shoulders. The forearms, short as is usual in Cycladic sculpture, descend towards the pronounced waist, which finally widens again to form the lines of the hips. This interplay of sinuous lines determines the characteristic profile of this type of figurine, which is therefore known as violin-type idols. This typology is also characterised, as the piece under study shows, by a rounded lower edge and the omission of the legs: the symbolic attention is concentrated on the torso, which brings together the characteristics of the female body associated with fertility and reproduction: the breasts, the belly and the pubis. To this day, this idol still preserves on its front face the remains of incisions that would have drawn anatomical or ornamental details, such as the V-shaped line at the start of the neck. The neck, now broken, would have been considerably longer, cylindrical and flat at the top, without a differentiated representation of the head.

The Cycladic idols take their name from their place of origin: the Cyclades islands, a group of 34 islands in the southwestern Aegean Sea. The ancient Greeks called them Kyklades, (circle), as they are arranged in a roughly circular shape around the sacred Delos, sanctuary of Apollo. They are particularly rich in the mineral resources of iron, copper, gold, silver, emery, obsidian and marble (marble from Paros and Naxos are among the finest in the world). From the Neolithic period onwards, an important maritime and commercial civilisation developed there, with very high artistic potential.

This culture is divided into three successive phases: Early Cycladic (3200-1850 BC), Middle (1850-1600 BC) and Recent (1600-1050 BC). The most brilliant moment corresponds to the Early Cycladic; after this period the islands fell successively under the influence of Crete and Mycenae.

It is very likely that the first inhabitants of the Cyclades, who came from Asia Minor and Anatolia, introduced the cult of the Mother Goddess, the guarantor of fertility. Archaeological finds are scarce, and not much is known about their religious practices. It is possible that the sacred places of worship were in the open air. Architectural evidence is also very scarce, with burial sites being the most common. More than 2,000 graves have been found. Most of them are small pits dug shallowly into the ground, rectangular, trapezoidal or circular in shape, enclosed by stone walls. Their small size means that the deceased was buried in the foetal position, lying on his left side. On the island of Syros, chamber tombs were common, much larger, forming vaults and communicating with the exterior, thus allowing for possible funerary rites. The artistic evidence of this culture, the Cycladic idols, comes from the grave goods of the highest-ranking inhabitants. This fact has given rise to interpretations in relation to the funerary world, especially as amulets for the deceased, or as indicators of the place of burial, in the form of a stele. The female figures (around 95% of those found) have been interpreted as representations of the Mother Goddess or of fertility.

It has also been suggested that these idols, due to evidence of repairs and repainting on some of them, may have been actively used during the lifetime of their owners before being placed in their tombs. Perhaps they served as protective amulets during particularly physically and spiritually dangerous times, such as childbirth, death, sea voyages or rituals of passage. It has also been noted that they may have been especially linked to the lives of women, and indeed there are Cycladic idols depicting pregnant women, or those with postpartum wrinkles. The crossed arms under the chest of these figures can be interpreted as a symbolic protection of the womb, although it is also a typically funerary position.

A Cycladic idol is notable for its schematic treatment of the human body, reducing the anatomy to its most essential elements. Made of Paros marble, they were decorated with motifs painted with mineral-based pigments: azurite for the blues and iron or cinnabar for the reds. The schematic design, their common denominator, rounded profiles and the absence of details, make it possible to distinguish several archetypes. Size is a variable characteristic, ranging from 5 to 150 centimetres in height. The modelling was achieved by abrading the marble piece with emery stone.

The oldest idols are from the Early Cycladic I, the most schematic, making it impossible to identify the sex with the naked eye. There are three types, developed at the same time: Plastiras, in which the facial features are very marked, except for the eyes. The second, called Louros, whose main characteristic is to keep the arms stretched out horizontally. Both typologies do not show the nose. The third typology is called the "violin idol" due to its shape, which is notably more synthetic in its conception than the two previous ones. This third type is characterised by an elongated neck, without a head, short protuberances on both sides representing the arms bent and crossed over the chest, a differentiated waist and wide hips, which end in a rounded lower profile, without legs. Violin idols are the most common type of Early Cycladic schematic human representations, and are usually small in size, rarely exceeding 20 cm in height. It is known that they are female representations because several examples have an incised pubic triangle or, less frequently, modelled breasts.

According to Pat Getz-Gentle, the seated steatopygic figures made in the Cyclades during the Late Neolithic would have been the original model for the flatter and more schematic violin idols. This simplification from a more anatomically correct and detailed original model would be the result of an evolution towards ever greater synthesisation developed in parallel, as is typical of Cycladic sculpture, to a more naturalistic sculpture (Plastiras type).

The violin idols would therefore be a reduction to their essence (formal and symbolic) of the ancient female figure seated cross-legged, with arms bent at the elbow and placed under the chest, narrow waist and wide hips, traditionally interpreted as a representation related to fertility.

Bibliography:

- CAUBET, A. (ed.). Idols. The Power of Images. Skira, Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue. 2019.
- DOUMAS, C. The N. P. Goulandris Collection of Early Cycladic Art. Praeger. 1968.
- GETZ-GENTLE, P. Sculptors of the Cyclades: Individual and Tradition in the Third Millennium B.C. University of Michigan Press. 1987.
- GETZ-GENTLE, P. Early Cycladic Art in North American Private Collections. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. 1987.
- GETZ- GENTLE, P. Early Cycladic Sculpture: An Introduction. Getty Museum. 1994.
- PAPATHANASOPOULOS, G. Neolithic and Cycladic Civilization. National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Melissa Publishing House. 1981.
- PICÓN, C. Classical Antiquities from Private Collections in Great Britain: A Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Ashmole Archive. Sotheby’s London. 1986.

Parallels:

Fig. 1 Violin-type idol. Marble, 11.1 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. British Museum, London. Inv. 1889,0521.2.

Fig. 2 Violin-type idol. Marble, 13.8 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. Ligabue Collection, Venice, Italy.

Fig. 3 Violin idol. Marble, 23 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. Private collection, Paris, France.

Fig. 4 Violin idol. Marble, 21.3 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens. Inv. 'ΝΓ106.

Fig. 5 Violin idol. Marble, 9.4 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens. Inv. 'ΝΓ0337. Broken and repaired in antiquity.

Fig. 6 Violin idol. Marble. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. Archaeological Museum of Naxos.

Fig. 7 Violin idol. Marble, 11.5 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Inv. MND 2002, Ma 3505.

Fig. 8 Violin-type idol. Marble, 12.6 cm high. Early Cycladic Period I, c. 3200-2700 BC. British Museum, London. Inv. 1884,1213.16.


Notes:
The piece includes authenticity certificate.
The piece includes Spanish Export License.