15 Chapter 4.2: Cycladic Art
CYCLADIC ART
Between 3000 and 2000 BCE the peoples that inhabited the Cyclades islands shared a common culture and produced a distinctive art form: small marble sculptures primarily of women.
TASK
After viewing/reading the sources below on their way of life and their unique artform, please answer the accompanying questions.
Cycladic Art, an introduction – Smarthistory
Cycladic Civilization – Folded-arm figures – Tiny Epics
Male Harp Player from Keros – Smarthistory
Prompts:
What was their primary art form of the Cycladic civilization?
To what extent are the male figures unique?
What shared stylistic traits to the female Cycladic figures share?
To what extent do the males and females differ?
What are the challenges to studying Cycladic figures?
How would the artworks originally have appeared?
Where were the objects found (how dead buried)?
What was the possible function of these?
What new ideas emerged about the nature of the figures from the find at Keros?
