Abstract marble figurines are the most recognizable product of the Cyclades during the Early Cycladic II-III. Primarily found in tombs, more than half of them come from Chalandriani. They are carved from the white, semi-translucent marble quarried on the island of Paros. The same marble would later be used by Greek sculptors to create some of the great masterpieces of classical Greece, but this lies several millennia into the future.

The most common type of Cycladic figurine is a female figurine with arms crossed. It is closely related to the violin figurine, which is just a more abstracted version of the same thing. Both are found in early bronze tombs in the Cyclades and also on the Greek mainland. The Cycladic and violin figurines seems to represent a goddess or, perhaps more vaguely, the earth in its feminine aspect.

From the Cyclades to the Beersheva Valley

The Cycladic figurines bear some resemblance to Pinnochio figurines produced by the Ghassulian culture of the southern Levant. There is also clearly some relation between them and a silver figurine found at Hasanoglan in central Anatolia (not far from Alacahoyuk which we will look at shortly). It is worth noting that these three regions also produced violin figurines. If the Ghassulian figurines are a millennium earlier than the other objects, as is generally thought, then their inclusion here is hardly relevant, but if the dates for the Ghassulian culture are lowered to the beginning of the Early Bronze I (early 3rd millennium BC), as we have argued, then they offer a valid comparison.

The Harpist of Keros

Not all of the Cycladic figurines can be classified as goddess figurines. The “Harpist of Keros” and the “Flutist” represent human rather than divine beings, engaged in activities associated with feasting.

The harp and the flute were the two most important musical instruments in ancient Greece. According to ancient music theory, the harp was a soothing instrument played to appease the gods whereas the flute awakened the soul to frenzy.

These lines set forth by the Greek poet, Aeschylus, describe what might be classified as a rave. Festivals and processions conducted in honor of fertility deities such as Dionysus and Demeter were characterized by repetitious drum beats, undirected and disorientating notes, and the consumption of a lot of alcohol and probably other types of mind-altering substances as well. Such rituals may undoubtedly be traced back to an earlier, illiterate age, although we have less information to go on for these periods.

The Abstract

From the totems of the Pacific Northwest to Mayan and Aztec sculpture, the products of certain cultures have tended towards abstraction. In contrast, the frescoes of the Minoans, Greek sculpture, and Sumerian cylinder seals, to name just a few, exhibit a high degree of naturalism. How do we explain this divergence?

The most straightforward explanation is that it is not easy to capture the living essence of things with paint or stone; relatively few artists have attained the ability to do it.

Literacy may also play a part, since in literate societies the artist is companion to the scribe. Both sought to record something or give honor to someone using their respective mediums.

But this cannot be the full explanation, for even when an artist is able to capture the natural subject, he may choose to represent it abstractly anyway. For example, Parisian painters working during the early 1900’s, known as Fauvists (“Wild Beasts”) because of their uncivilized and grotesque style, preferred to reduce the human subject to geometrical shapes and naked forms, even though some of them were quite good portrait artists.

This leads to a third explanation for abstraction: its undeniable connection with animism—a religious belief system in which spirits or forces animate physical objects. Animism places greater emphasis on the inner self and emotions rather than on the mind and rationality; the elemental instead of the personal. Artistically, animism is expressed through abstraction. It cannot be a coincidence that early 20th century avant-garde painters such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Paul Klee, seeking to break from Christian tradition, drew inspiration from the products of animistic societies, such as ritual masks from Africa or marble figurines from the Cyclades. No doubt the popularity of modern art in our own day may be traced to the same impulses.