THE ‘LITTLE JEWEL’
OF THE CYCLADES

Predominantly female, these figures are marked by an archaic reduction and simplification of form, tending toward abstraction and extreme stylisation of the human body. Their contemplation evokes a sublime sense of time suspended. Behind the apparent minimalism lies a powerful, captivating presence. Yet this purity, on closer analysis, proves illusory: traces of pigments attest to an original vivid polychromy comparable to that later associated with Hellenistic sculpture.

The Cycladic idol presented here, first published in 1960, strikingly displays the stylistic traits attributed to the so-called ‘Karo Sculptor’. This conventional name, introduced by Patricia Getz-Preziosi – a leading authority on Cycladic idols since the 1970s – designates a small corpus of Early Cycladic marble figures of the early Spedos type that are stylistically comparable. Within this variant, the specialist distinguishes two fundamental types, which may be summarised as follows: style A, characterised by generously rounded forms and soft contours, and style B, with a more linear and angular aspect. With its defined curves, compactness and gentle volumes, our example clearly belongs to the first style.

In an undated letter in our possession, Getz-Preziosi argues for attributing our figure to the Karo Sculptor. Although this idol, 17.8 cm high, would be the second-smallest object attributed to this artist, its stylistic characteristics support the attribution: an ellipsoidal chin and a high-set nose, a compact torso, and a comparable treatment of the abdominal fold. Likewise, the long opening beneath the knees and the upturned feet, detached from the torso, correspond to features found in other works by the sculptor.

The Cycladic idol presented here is also distinguished by its prestigious provenance. It belonged to the private collection of the sculptor Jacob Epstein (New York, 1880 – London, 1959), a central figure in London’s artistic life during the first half of the 20^th century. As a collector, he played a key role in the recognition within the Western art world of so-called 'indigenous' or 'exotic' arts from Africa, the Americas and Oceania. The son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Epstein studied painting and sculpture in New York, then in Paris at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts, before settling permanently in London in 1905. He was knighted in 1954. His interest in the art of ancient Greece began with visits to the Louvre and, from 1905, to the British Museum, where he developed a passion for the Elgin Marbles as well as for Greek, Egyptian, African and Polynesian sculpture.

After Jacob Epstein’s death, the Italian connoisseur Carlo Monzino (1933–1996) acquired a large part of his collection in the 1960s, including our idol. Monzino settled at the end of that decade in Castagnola, Ticino. His collecting interests overlapped in part with Epstein’s; for more than forty years he assembled high-quality African art together with post-war Western art.

Despite its modest dimensions and subtle differences, this Cycladic idol by the Karo Master – through its elegance and the long incision separating the legs – appears to belong to a later phase in the sculptor’s stylistic development, as he otherwise worked on a larger scale. Patricia Getz-Preziosi aptly described our example as a 'little jewel' within the Karo Master’s oeuvre.