Cypriot Limestone Figurine
Cypro-Classical I (475-325 BC). Height 16.5cm
A female figurine standing on an irregular base, with the left leg advanced. She wears long, pointed shoes and a long chiton with vertical folds. Both arms are bent, holding a tympanon (drum) in front of her. Anklets encircle her ankles, and her shoulders slope gently. The face is oval, with a plump chin and rounded cheeks. She has a slightly smiling mouth, a nose aligned with the forehead, and eyes shaped like myrtle leaves. Her hair is curled over the forehead, and she wears a wreath. A bonnet-shaped headdress covered by a veil completes the head; most of the veil is now missing, though it originally fell down the back to below the waist with a rounded edge. Made of hard white limestone. Traces of red paint remain on the veil and lips, with red bordered, fringed vertical strokes along the sides of the body. There are also traces of green paint on the wreath and black on the hair, irises, and eyebrows.
The sculpture was excavated by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition in 1928 at Vouni, from the Palace, Room 129, from a deposit of sculptures. It has been part of the collection of the Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden (Inv. No.: V. 491) since 1931.