Head of a stylized human figure, which can be assigned to the late so-called Spedos type in terms of its shape. Lyre-shaped in its basic form. Prominent nose reaching far into the lower half of the face. Chin with a rounded contour, tapering slightly towards the middle and, viewed from a side perspective, barely protruding beyond the neck. Below the chin there is a flat narrow groove that goes up to the neck and dissolves towards the middle. The upper part of the body, also set off against the neck by a flat, narrow groove, makes it clear that the shoulders sloped steeply. The formal observations mentioned here are stylistic features of the so-called Goulandris master (see also note). Bump on the upper right corner of the head. Fine brownish deposits.
PROVENANCE
Formerly priv. coll. Dr. Walter Veith, Solingen, Germany, 1972. Thereafter priv. coll. I. R., Rhineland, Germany. Priv. coll. J. R., Germany, acquired 2006 from Gordian Weber, Cologne (published: Cat. Antiken 10, 2006, p. 10-12, no. 5 with illus.). Old mount, dated 1960-1970.
NOTE
In addition to a form-typological categorization, the attempt was made by archaeological research to assign Cycladic idols to different "artist hands"; see in particular P. Getz-Preziosi, Sculptors of the Cyclades. Individual and Tradition in the Third Millennium B.C. (Ann Arbor 1987); on the Goulandris master see pp. 99-108, plates 34-37; P. Getz-Gentle, Personal styles in Early Cycladic sculpture (Madison 2001). One of the best-known and most productive sculptors is the so-called Goulandris Master (a fictional name named after the Goulandris Museum in Athens), to whom more than a hundred fragments are ascribed. Further style-forming features of the Goulandris master are according to Getz-Preziosi z. B. the small, widely spaced breasts and the horizontal hip line that closes the pubic triangle at the top.