Early Cycladic marble female figure

What you see

What you see

A marble figure of a woman, 62.79 cm high; the record's object name is "Statuette of a woman". The museum's description: "Cycladic sculptors produced several identifiable types of marble female figures but with slight variations", and groups of figures "with similar proportions, style, and execution have been attributed to individual artists". "The elongated, highly stylized form of this example's body is characteristic of the Bastis Master", a name taken from the figure's twentieth-century collector; "the sculptor's real name is unknown". The museum's open image exists, but no photographs are included on the site in this round. Source 1.

What the record says

The record dates the figure "2600-2400 BCE", gives the period as "Early Cycladic II" and the culture as "Cycladic", and attributes it ("Attributed to the") to the Bastis Master. Its geography and excavation fields are empty: it states neither a findspot nor a place of manufacture. The provenance shown on the page quotes a 1987 catalogue: "Said to be from Paros, but more likely to be from Naxos". That is a reported origin, not a recorded findspot, and it does not say where the figure was carved; the provenance continues "[Until 1947, with Nicolas Koutoulakis, Paris]; 1947, purchased by Christos G" before the page cuts it off. The credit line reads "Gift of Christos G. Bastis, 1968". Source 1.

Placement on the timeline

The museum's range, 2600-2400 BCE, lies entirely within the site's Early Bronze Age in the Aegean, ca. 3200-2000 B.C. in the Met's timeline, and "Early Cycladic" is the name the Dartmouth chronology gives to the Early Bronze Age of the islands. The figure is therefore placed on that page by its date and by its cultural and stylistic attribution only. "Cycladic" is the catalogue's culture, not a findspot, and the island on which the figure was made is not known; "Bastis Master" is a modern stylistic grouping named after a collector, not a documented person. Sources 1, 2, 3.

Without a context

The Met's timeline notes that Cycladic sculptures "have been found mostly in burial contexts". This figure has no recorded context, so nothing can be said here about where it was placed or how it was used. The Keros article on this site describes the opposite case: excavated deposits of figurines broken elsewhere, whose fragments hardly join. Sources 2, 4.

Where it is now

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession 68.148. On 24 October 2026 the record stated "On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 151".