11. Cycladic Figurine, Amorgos,

Cyclades, Greek, c. 2500 B.C.E.

Marble, height: 30 cm.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

 

 

Marble and bronze were the two materials most used for Greek sculpture, the latter being much more in use than we would be led to infer from the number of bronze statues preserved. The best marble for statuary came from the island of Paros and from Mt. Pentelicus, in Attica. The Greeks at all periods, strange as it seems to us, applied paint to portions of both their architecture and their sculpture. The eyes, eyebrows, hair, perhaps the lips, and certain parts of the drapery, particularly to indicate a pattern, were painted. The original Greek sculpture, which has escaped the destruction of centuries of greed and ignorance, is but a small fraction of what once existed. The sculpture we have is very largely made up of Roman copies and adaptations of famous earlier works.