Cycladic Female Folded-Arm Figurine

Unassuming in appearance, the serene composition of HoMA’s Cycladic Folded-Arm Figurine belies the millennia of human history that have passed since its creation. Carved in approximately 2500 BCE on the Aegean island of Naxos, this sculpture has been in slumbering repose through nearly all recorded history. Its smooth, flat features were shaped when mammoths walked the earth, the pyramids were under construction, and the Hawaiian archipelago was still uninhabited.

Particularly large and well preserved, this sculpture belongs to a group of roughly 1,500 similarly posed female figurines excavated from Bronze Age graves in the Cyclades during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Scholars have speculated on their original purpose and significance ever since. Even though the names of the artists have long been lost, it is still possible to identify their handiwork. 

In the case of HoMA’s figurine, the combination of proportions, shape, type of marble, and carving detail places the work in the Classic Developed Style, Late Spedos Variety, belonging to the Keros-Syros Culture of the Early Cycladic II Period. Late Spedos Variety figurines share common traits such as a generally U-shaped head, an elongated, reclining body with the left arm typically crossed over the right, and a deeply engraved line representing the separation of the legs. Other characteristics of HoMA’s figure, such as the hard slope of its shoulders, the horizontal line delineating the top of the pubic triangle, and its wide-set breasts has caused it to be compared to the work of the artist recognized as the Goulandris Master, though there is not enough evidence to confirm attribution.

In addition to scholars, these Cycladic figures captured the imagination of artists and aesthetes around the turn of the 20th century. The shapes and forms pioneered by ancient craftsmen find echoes in works by such Modern Era artists as Constantin Brancusi, Henry Moore, and Pablo Picasso. At HoMA, works by Amedeo Modigliani and Alexander Archipenko share gallery space and similar styles of abstraction with this figurine. Although its original significance may now be lost, the importance of sculptures such as this to modern artists and contemporary audiences carries on through the galleries of HoMA and many other museums around the world.

—Kyle Swartzlender, Registrar

Female Folded-Arm Figurine
Cycladic, 2500–2400 BCE
Marble with traces of polychrome
Purchase, Frank C. Atherton Memorial Fund, 1976 (4386.1)