Early Cycladic II, middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. 

Marble

D: 19.2 cm

Marble

D: 19.2 cm

PROVENANCE: Ex-Swiss private collection; acquired on the Swiss art market in 2004

PUBLISHED: Phoenix Ancient Art Catalogue 2006, no. 2 (p. 48, n. 27)

SERIAL NO: 18136

This plate is an example of one of the most characteristic forms from the genre of Cycladic stone vessels. The exterior profile is convex and evenly carved and the rounded lip is undercut with a carved groove on the interior. A slight depression at the center of the piece, outlined by a disk carved into the marble, serves as the base and renders the plate perfectly stable. On the interior, there are traces of tool marks, left there from the carving of the piece.

The shape and the type of this plate is that of the so-called Kéros-Syros culture (the name of two archaeological sites): it is during this cultural phase that the highest expressions of Cycladic Bronze Age artistry were developed. It is impossible to know for sure what these vessels were originally used for. However, most of the examples, where the provenance is known, were found in necropoleis, often alongside marble figurines: these plates were probably made as part of the group of vessels used during funerary rites and/or banquets.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DOUMAS CH., Cycladic Art: Ancient Sculpture and Ceramics of the Aegean from the N.P. Goulandris Collection, Washington D.C., 1979, p. 52, no. 39. 

GETZ-GENTLE P., Ancient Art of the Cyclades, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, 2006, p. 50, no. 61. 

GETZ-GENTLE P., Stone Vessels of the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age, Madison, Wisconsin, 1996, pp. 97-105, pl. 50, 52-54.

GETZ-PREZIOSI P., Early Cycladic Stone Vases, in THIMME J., ed., Art and Culture in the Cyclades in the Third Millennium B.C., Chicago, London, 1977, 98, 318-319, 507-509, nos. 296-305.

GETZ-PREZIOSI P., Early Cycladic Art in North American Collections, Richmond, Virginia, 1987, pp. 300-305, nos. 122-127.

RENFREW C., The Cycladic Spirit: Masterpieces from Nicholas P. Goulandris Collection, New York, 1991, pp. 69, fig. 39.