design-is-fine:Head of a Figure of the Early Spedos Variety, Cycladic, 2600 - 2500 BC. Unknown artis
design-is-fine:Head of a Figure of the Early Spedos Variety, Cycladic, 2600 - 2500 BC. Unknown artist. Marble with traces of polychromy. Via Getty MuseumMuch of the esteem for Cycladic figures (and their influence on Modernist art) is based on a misconceived aesthetic premise: that the objects were created with the purity, abstraction, and simplicity of the design and the blank white look of the marble that we see today. Originally, the appearance must have been much more complex. Facial and anatomical details, and sometimes garments, were rendered in bright paint. The figures were decorated with red, black, and blue designs indicating jewelry and body paint or tattoos. Instead of abstraction there was colorful realism. More about cycladic art here -- source link