#cycladic

Terracotta kernos (vase for multiple offerings), Cycladic - ca. 2300–1900 BCE

The kernos was a popular type of vessel in the Mediterranean world during the prehistoric period, and particularly impressive examples have come to light in the Cyclades. This vase reflects the potter’s great skill and creativity. The two rings of receptacles probably held multiple offerings, such as flowers, fruit, and other foods. Similar kernoi have been discovered in tombs on the island of Melos.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Parikia

Greek, Cycladic, Female figure, c. 2600-2500 b.c. x

Greek, Cycladic, Female Figure, c. 2600 b.c. x

Flying fish fresco fragments of a seascape frieze, 1600-1500 BC. Phylakopi, Melos (Milos, volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea). Collection National Archeological Museum, Athens, Greece

The fresco decorated the wall of a room in a compound of religious character. Blue, red and black (for the outline) are used to create one of the most beautiful wall paintings of the Aegean, with obvious influences from Minoan Crete.

• https://www.namuseum.gr/en/collection/syllogi-kykladikon-archaiotiton/

a lil stargazer arcee :)

ramblings of a madman below:

this is deeply inspired by this cycladic “stargazer” type of figure! i dont know if i can properly explain why but i just adore these little pieces, they evoke so much emotion for me yet their details could be considered “imperfect”: the paint has worn away to apparitions and the carving/shapes are not quite symmetrical…

the fact we even have most of these figures because they were so well-preserved underground in burials already gets to me bc all these millennia into the future we still have these traces of people’s love and care for their deceased. its a profound reminder that this memorialization is honestly what art is about to me, imperfections be damned <3

please keep in mind i am NOT an art historian/archaeologist so im not particularly well-versed in this subject, i just love seeing how constant human artmaking is even if the styles are always changing :]

Cycladic art therefore comprises one of the three main branches of Aegean art. The best known type of artwork that has survived is the marble figurine, most commonly a single full-length female figure with arms folded across the front. The type is known to archaeologists as a “FAF” for “folded-arm figure(ine)”. Apart from a sharply-defined nose, the faces are a smooth blank, although there is evidence on some that they were originally painted.

Amedeo Modigliani (IT, Livorno, 1884 - 1920, Paris)

Head of a Woman, 1911-12. Limestone 65 × 19 × 25 cm

thnx mirrormaelstrom

Modern artists’ ignorance about Cycladic sculpture facts was paramount to the development of [their imagination] the abstract austerity of modern art.

Arp, Brâncuși, Modigliani, Moore, Picasso, Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipchitz, and Isamu Noguchi, among others—turned to the arts of foreign and ancient cultures in order to shake off the mores of Western visual tradition.

How Cycladic Sculpture Influenced Modern Art

• https://www.secretmodigliani.com/sculpture1.html
• https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-5-000-year-old-sculptures-shockingly-modern-art
• https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46716.html

@rue-privee - Greek boat

Pregnant Cycladic woman, based on a cycladic idol.

A few scholars have noticed that cycladic idols depicting female figures have a more prominent belly compared to the male figures and have theorized that said figures are actually pregnant.

I originally intended to depict her naked, but Tumblr hid my “Minoan dancers” post from the Minoan tag, because I depicted them with bare breasts, so I picked a bunch of clothes for that lovely woman.

Cycladic harp player.

Hope you like it. The harp is kinda modern, but who cares?

A cycladic fisherman proudly displays his catch. I barely see anyone making art about the Cycladic civilization (most of the time, it’s either the Mycanean or the Minoan Civilization), so I thought of being the first one.

Male Harp Player of the Early Spedos Type, 2700–2300 B.C.

Artist/Maker: Unknown
Culture: Cycladic
Place: Cyclades, Greece (Place Created)
Date: 2700–2300 B.C.
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 35.8 × 9.5 × 28.1 cm (14 1/8 × 3 ¾ × 11 1/16 in.)

Department:  Antiquities

Classification: Sculpture

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California

Illustrations of musical performances are scarce in Cycladic art, and this harpist is one of the few known examples. Sitting erect on a simple four-legged stool with his face lifted in song, he plays a frame harp—a stringed instrument that originated in the Near East—while resting his right hand on its sound box.

The extension at the top, a common feature on ancient stringed instruments, facilitated the projection of the sound. Originally the figure’s eyes and hair were added in paint. This challenging composition of a seated player, stool, and delicate frame was shaped from a block of solid marble and then patiently ground down with pumice and emery, locally available abrasives. The resulting three-dimensional design is a masterpiece of Bronze Age sculpture.

Cycladic idol (marble, c. 2700-2000 BC)

This idol belongs to the Apeiranthos type, named after a village on Naxos. It is a development of the ‘spade-shaped’ type of the Early Cycladic I period (3200-2800 BC), but differs in that the head and body are not completely flat, but carved in outline.

images and adapted text from here

Oia village on Santorini, Greece, is a fine example of Cycladic architecture with whitewashed cubical houses built next to and on top of one another.

Marble female figure, C. 4500–4000 BCE

Cycladic

Couturier

A mosaic portrait of Dimitris Kairidis, an extraordinary Greek parliamentarian and esteemed university professor, created for a special gift from his devoted staff. 
Inspired by the Greek architecture and obviously the Greek summer.