KAPSALA VARIETY, ATTRIBUTED TO THE KONTOLEON SCULPTOR, EARLY CYCLADIC II, CIRCA 2700-2600 B.C.

The earliest Cycladic marble reclining female figures with folded arms are today called the Kapsala Variety, which take their name from the cemetery on the island of Amorgos where the first known example of the type was excavated (see p. 457 in J. Thimme, Art and Culture of the Cyclades). As P. Getz-Preziosi explains (p. 151 in Early Cycladic Art in North American Collections), “These figures tend to be slim and soberly proportioned if somewhat elongated, and the stylistic emphasis is on simplified, rounded forms distinguished through modeling and changes of plane…”. They are usually modest in scale, most rarely exceeding 16 in. in length.

The figure presented here can be added to the list of similar examples attributed to an anonymous craftsman today called the Kontolean Master, so-called for the two female figures excavated by Nikolaos Kontolean at Aplomata on the island of Naxos. Their shared traits are the “characteristically long, broad-cheeked, oval face with a delicate nose well above the prominent chin; a rather long neck; softly round shoulders; pointed breasts set just above the tapered forearms. The thighs are exaggeratedly long, the naturalistically modeled calves by contrast short. The knees are indicated plastically; the feet, with lightly arched soles, are small. Neither the toes nor fingers are incised and, in fact, the only incised detail common to all the figures is a spine” (see p. 83 in Getz-Preziosi, Sculptors of the Cyclades: Individual and Tradition in the Third Millennium B.C.; see pl. 21 for several related examples).