The prehistoric Cycladic culture made distinctive and strange yet elegant statues of an almost extraterrestrial appearance.
The Cyclades is a group of thirty small Greek islands and numerous islets in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The Cycladic culture was once active here between 3200 and 2000 B.C.; what little we know about this society comes in large part from the art they left behind.
The abundance of good-quality white marble on the islands encouraged its wide use in the creation of functional objects as well as human figurines. Cycladic sculpture reveals a particular interest in the female body in the creation of iconic female figures commonly called idols found mostly at grave sites. Indeed, the vast majority of Cycladic figures are female. Cycladic culture was preliterate so there is no writing or texts to illustrate the use of these figures. Some archaeologists believe that the idols express supplication or prayer because their faces look upward. Perhaps the figures are an idealized portrayal of a "Mother Goddess," a symbol of fertility and rejuvenation.
Among the existing examples of Cycladic sculpture, only five percent depict men. Most of these are engaged in special activities like playing a harp. In a preliterate society, according to the Getty Museum, musicians played an important role not only as entertainers but also as storytellers who kept alive the oral traditions, myths, and folklore through songs.
The Cycladic figurines are unlike any art produced by the cultures of their time. The statues are restrained in expression and refined in execution. Their simplistic lines vividly tell the story behind the figure, whether sitting or standing. Typically the figures are frontal in stance and geometric in style with the arms folded above the belly. They are designed to be viewed frontally only and not from the sides. Because most of them have feet pointed downward, they may be designed to lay flat rather than stand vertically.
Probably the most striking characteristic of Cycladic sculpture is its spare two-dimensional nature of modern familiarity. Their elegance and simple lines inspired such modern artists as Brancusi, Modigliani, and Picasso. However, while modern art attempts to free itself from the restraints of artistic complexity and the guidelines of naturalism, Cycladic artists made obvious attempts to represent the human form.
According to the Getty Museum, much of the modernist reverence for Cycladic figures is “based on a misconceived aesthetic premise” that they are abstract works of art pared down to minimal representational forms: flat, pure, and white. The original appearance of the figures was much more complex. Details like eyes, eyebrows, hair, even garments, were brightly painted onto the figurines and have been worn away by time. For instance, the figures were originally decorated with red, black, and blue designs to indicate facial features, jewelry, body paint, or tattoos (some of the details remain on this figure).
Instead of abstraction, the original intent was colorful realism.
Glossary:
Geometric: an ancient economic and elegantly simple artistic style where figures are depicted in geometric forms such as a rhythmic arrangement of horizontal and vertical shapes.
Idol: a material effigy that is worshipped as a god or an image used as an object of worship
Amedeo Modigliani: In Modigliani's art, there is evidence of the influence of primitive art.
Sources:
http://holidays-in-greece.com/cyclades/cyc/art.shtml
http://www.cycladic-m.gr/en_version/permanent.htm
http://www.getty.edu/art
