EARLY SPEDOS VARIETY, EARLY CYCLADIC II, CIRCA 2600-2500 B.C.

In a dated 26 August 2004 letter to the current owner, the renowned ancient Cycladic art scholar Pat Getz-Gentle remarks on the painted pigment preserved on the present figure: The low-placed painted left eye and “ghost” of a painted right eye, discernable closer to the bridge of the nose, “suggests that two pairs of eyes were originally painted (probably on different occasions).” Double pairs of eyes are a comparably rare feature, observable on only seven other known examples. According to E.A. Hendrix (p. 425 in “Painted Early Cycladic Figures: An Exploration of Context and Meaning,” Hesperia, vol. 72, no. 4), “It is possible that a second set of eyes was painted after the first had worn away, but sufficiently soon after for the painter to avoid the (charged?) space of the first set. Another possibility is that two sets of eyes were painted to be visible at once, two sets representing more ‘eye power’ than a single set.” The dark pigment to the top of the head might have been used to indicate hair, a trait also observed on the large Early Spedos head now in the Getty Villa (see no. 43 in P. Getz-Preziosi, Early Cycladic Art in North American Collections).

This figure with its bold curving contours, lyre-shaped head and elbows that project slightly from the body shares much in common with works assigned to the Fitzwilliam Sculptor (see no. 32 in Getz-Preziosi, op. cit.). In her analysis of the present figure, however, Getz notes that while it belongs to the same sub-style of the Early Spedos variety as that artist’s work, the “shoulder/upper arm outline contour of the work is more rounded than that consistently seen on the Fitzwilliam Sculptor’s figures.” Getz remarks that the present figure is likely by the same anonymous hand as another in a private collection.