The J. Paul Getty Museum

Object Description

By about 2700 B.C., Cycladic sculptors had developed a form of carved figure that would become canonical: a reclining female with folded arms. The Kapsala type, named after an Early Cycladic cemetery on the island of Amorgos, is the earliest of these canonical types. Kapsala figures tend to have slender and elongated proportions. In an effort to avoid breakage, the legs of the figure are only partially separated. However, the feet of this figure have broken off. Anatomical features such as the arms are modeled three-dimensionally, whereas in later types, sculptors rendered this feature with incised lines. The Getty Museum's piece is an unusually large example of the Kapsala type.

Sculptors living on different islands produced marble figurines in a similar style but with distinctive variations. The recognition of different artistic personalities in Cycladic sculpture is based upon recurring systems of proportion and details of execution. This figure is attributed to the Kontoleon Master, who was active sometime in the period from 2700 to 2600 B.C. More than eight of his figures, all of the sort scholars call the Kapsala type, survive. The figures display distinctive features of the artist's style: a long, broad-cheeked, oval face with a delicate nose and prominent chin; a rather long neck; long thighs above short calves; small feet; no toes or fingers; and an incised spine. Like all artists in this early period, the Kontoleon Master's real name is unknown, and he is identified only by the style of his work. Scholars have named this sculptor after Nikolaos Kontoleon, an archaeologist who excavated in the Cyclades.

Within Cycladic culture, the figures’ role and meaning remain elusive. Those with known archaeological contexts come mainly from graves. Most figures cannot stand, as their feet and toes point downward. They may have been meant to lie on their backs, as their folded arms suggest repose. In ceremonial use however, the figures would have been held or carried upright in procession. Hundreds of fragments were found in a sanctuary on the island of Keros, deliberately shattered and ritually discarded. It is uncertain whether such generic images depict human beings or deities, but the nude female figures are probably linked with fertility and the life cycle, a central spiritual concern in the ancient Mediterranean.