The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 12/1984 [antikvár]

Nine Fragments of Early Cycladic Sculpture in Southern California Pat Getz-Preziosi At various points during the recent past, and since Georgiou's initial publication of four works,' a number of fragments of Early Cycladic figurative sculpture have been donated to the antiquities collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. These eight pieces, as well as another in a Southern California private collection, share a common background, having belonged to the huge group of objects, now largely dispersed, known as the Keros hoard.^ Elsewhere I have discussed in some detail the likelihood of this group's integrity and the probability that it was indeed unearthed on Keros, a small rocky, currently uninhabited island lying between Naxos and Aniorgos.^ A brief description of the hoard and a review of the reasons for believing its provenance to be Keros should be sufficient for our present purpose, which is to introduce the California fragments {only one of which has been previously published) along with some related material from the hoard. The original assemblage, which came to light over rwenty-five years ago, consisted of more than 350 pieces of sculpture. The great majority of these sculptures were fragmentary figures of the folded-arm type, ranging from the early Spedos through the Chalandriani varieties. There were also several complete schematic figurines of the Apeiranthos type contemporaneous with the folded-arm f^ures. The other objects included a few complete, and several fragmentary, marble and clay vases, as well as obsidian blades, an incised bone tube, and several stone and shell polishers. Like the figures, these belonged to the second (Keros-Syros) phase of the Early Cycladic culture, and in fact the material from the hoard seems nearly to span this period. In chronological terms this would cover roughly four hundred years, from about 2600 to about 2200 B.C. Among the folded-arm varieties, only the very earliest—the Kapsala—is perhaps missing, represented at most by an example or two.'' Several facts strongly suggest that the hoard was the fruit of unauthorized activity at the site on the southwest coast of Keros—opposite the islet of Daskaleio—where Doumas began systematic exploration in 1963. First, the type of the finds from the hoard, as well as their state of preservation, is virtually identical to that of the fragments discovered in the investigations of the Greek authorities. Moreover, the work of at least three well-known sculptors is present in both sets of material. Two of these-the Goulandris and Schuster Masters—are represented in the California group. The authorized excavators at the site opposite Daskaleio observed that clandestine activity had occurred there well before their own investigations began, and indeed I have been told by people from nearby islands that large quantities of sculpture, mostly fragmentary, had been collected and removed from the site many years ago. All controlled excavations of Early Cycladic sites yielding stone objects have produced a greater number of vases than Abbreviations AC: The An of the Cyclades: Aii Exhibition of Sculpture rtnti Artifacts of the Early Cycladic Period, 3000-2000 B.C., ex. cat. (Sanfani Gallery, New Yorlt, 1983). ACC: J. Thimme, gen. ed Art and Culture of the Cyclades in the Third Millenniiin: B.C. (Chicago, 1977). Addenda: P. Gctz-Preziosi, "Addenda to the Cycladic Exhibition in Kzrkruhc" Archäologischer Anzeiger, 1978, 1-11. Antidoron: P. Getz-Preziosi, "The 'Keros Hoard': Introduction to an Early Cycladic Enigma," in Antidoron ]itrf>eit Thimme, ed. D. Metzlcr and B. Otto (Karlsruhe, 1982), 37-44. Cycladica: J. L. Fitton, ed., Cycladica: Studies in Memory of N. P. Goulandris (London, 1984). Goulandris: C. Doumas, Cycladic Art: Ancient Sculpture and Ceramics of the Aegean from the N. P. Goulandris Collection, ex. cat. (National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979). Preziosi/Weinberg: P G. Preziosi and S. S. Weinberg, "Evidence for Painted Details in Early Cycladic Sculpture," Antike Ktinst 13 (1970), 4-12. Sculptors: P. Getz-Preziosi, Sculptors of the Cyclades: Individual and Tradition in the Third Millenniiun B.C. (Ann Arbor, forthcoming). 1. H. Georgiou, "Cycladic Figurines in the J. Paul Getty Museum," CetlYMusJ S {1977), 67-74. 2. See Antidoron. For individual pieces known to have come from the hoard published to date see n. 1 (N.B., J. L. Davis' articlc will appear in Cycladica under, the title "A Cycladic Figurine in Chicago from the 'Keros Hoard' and the Non-funereal Use of Cycladic Marble Figures"). Sec also AC, nos. 6 (head and body belong to different figures), 7, 19. Additional pieces will be discussed and illustrated in Sculptors. 3. Antidoron, 37-39. 4. Whether or not one considers the Kapsala variety to be represented at all depends on the classification of ACC, nos. 261 and 262. I am no longer convinced that either one need be considered any earlier than the early Spedos variety. Cf Antidoron, n. 11.