These schematic violin-shaped representations of the female form are from the Early Cycladic period.
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Original Cycladic figurines, carved in marble, were produced during the third millennium BC. They are remarkable for their abstract simplicity, which is believed to have inspired Picasso, Modigliani, and Moore.
Cycladic art originates from a group of islands in the southwestern Aegean, comprising some thirty small islands, including Naxos and Paros, which were known for the quality of their marble. The ancient Greeks called these islands the Kyklades, imagining them as falling within a circle (kyklos) around the sacred island of Delos, the site of the holiest sanctuary to Apollo and the island thought to be the birthplace of the god and his twin sister Artemis.
These Cycladic pieces are copies of originals in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and in the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.
