Marble female figure

Technical analysis: Ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence examination, optical microscopy


The figure is carved from an extremely fine-grained (maximum grain size < 0.5 mm) white marble. The nose, lower part of the face and front upper neck have been restored in marble. There are losses to the hands and to the proper right knee and the surface of the marble is generally very worn. Numerous reddish brown accretions adhere to the figure, especially on the back of the head and neck, the proper right back and arm, as well as parts of the buttocks and back of the legs.


The figure stands frontally on short corpulent legs, the feet flat on the ground. The prominent pubic area is defined by the upper lines of the fleshy thighs and the lower abdomen creating a large triangle. The arms are short, bent at the elbow and symmetrically placed to rest their hands on the belly of the figure without actually touching each other. Fingers and toes are marked by incisions. The full breasts are placed high on the chest between a V-shaped neckline and the narrow, rounded shoulders support the long angular neck and head. Although much of the face has been lost, the circular drilled eye sockets are well preserved, with a carefully carved groove at the outer edge, and may originally have held colored pebble inlays. The back of the spine is defined by a shallow groove which continues downward to form the cleft between the buttocks and the division between the legs.


A close stylistic parallel is a marble figure said to be from Amorgos and now in the Eleusis Archaeological Museum, inv. no. 5161.(1)


Seán Hemingway, Dorothy Abramitis, Federico Carò


(1) See Ch. Zervos, Naissance de la Civilization Grece I (Paris, 1962), figs. 203-204; Thimme 1977, fig. 31.