Marble female figure

Technical analysis: Multiband imaging, optical microscopy
This fine-grained white marble figure is complete with chips at the top of the head. Breaks at the center of the neck and both knees have been repaired and filled. The slightly backward-titled head is lyre-shaped with a flattened crown and rounded chin. The broad triangular relief nose sits high on the face. A loss at the top of the nose has been filled. Faint paint ghosts delineate the right eye with its pupil and the left eye. A pitted line across the forehead at the top of nose may delineate a polos. A faint curved groove delineates the thick cylindrical neck from the torso. The figure has narrow sloping rounded shoulders. The low relief arms without fingers are folded left over right below barely perceptible breasts and above a short abdomen with no indication of a public region. Deep vertical grooves separate the legs from the knees to the ankles. The legs are slightly bent at the knees. The outsplayed slightly arched feet bear no indication of toes. The back is flat and plain without buttocks.


There is red pigment in the groove between the legs below the knees and on the back of the lower legs. There are scattered particles of modern-looking blue pigment on the chin, the left side of the upper groove of the neck, at the top of the left shoulder, and on the back of the figure.


Georgios Gavalas, Sandy MacGillivray, Dorothy Abramitis and Elizabeth Hendrix