MONUMENTAL PLANK IDOL Early Cypriot, probably late 3rd millennium B.C.

MONUMENTAL PLANK IDOL

Early Cypriot, probably late 3rd millennium B.C.
Limestone with pierced holes for eyes. Rectangular, slightly curved, flat stele with rounded corners and projecting lateral extensions suggesting arms. With later base.
61 × 19 cm.
Encrustations. Repaired breaks. Scratches and chips to the surface.

Provenance:
- Sotheby's auction, London, July 14, 1975, Lot 216.
- By descent into a Swiss private collection.

Exhibited:
Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Oct. 25, 1976–Oct. 10, 1976, No. 571.

Literature:
Jürgen Thimme: Kunst und Kultur der Kykladeninseln im 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. Oct. 25, 1976–Oct. 10, 1976, No. 571.

This unique so-called plank idol, characterized by its minimalist simplicity, recalls the later Early Cypriot clay idols. Whereas the later clay idols feature incised and sculpturally rendered bodily and physiognomic details as well as polychromy indicating anthropomorphic or zoomorphic beings, the present example is reduced to its essential elements: only the conical pierced holes and projecting, stump-like extensions suggest a highly stylized humanoid figure. In the catalogue of the 1976 exhibition at the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Jürgen Thimme emphasizes the rarity and uniqueness of the present idol and is consequently unable to cite any relevant comparable examples. Accordingly, he refrains from proposing a more precise date. Sotheby’s, however, dated the plank idol to between 2000 and 1800 BC in its 1975 auction catalogue.

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