This very stylised, Chalcolithic
period Kiliya statuette is typical of
the category, the form consisting
of sharp angles and
complementary curves, with its
massive head posing oblique on a
thin neck, a particularity which
gave this genre the informal name
of “stargazer”, abstract but also
very graceful at the same time.
Proportion-wise the idol can be
divided into three equal portions,
one part corresponding to the head
and neck, the second from the
torso down to the hips and a third
part corresponding to the legs and
feet. The head is almost as wide as
the shoulders, the arms look
similar to bat-wings, whereas the
rest of the idol is rather flat.
The arms are differentiated from
the rest of the body by
exceptionally narrow oblique cuts,
generating angular hips and
elbows.
Kiliya statuettes were named after
the famous Gallipoli peninsula site
in modern Turkey, where an
alabaster figurine, now kept at the
American School of Classical
Studies in Athens, was discovered
for the first time at the beginning
of the 20th century.
It seems that the majority, if not
all, of the Kiliya statuettes, were
created in big workshops, following
strictly standardized formulas, and
possibly on a chain work basis,
which did not allow much
individual choice or conspicuous
modifications, with form and
technical execution remaining
fundamentally the same. Except
for a few rare exceptions, which
may not be the production of a
workshop but of individuals, the
only differences that we can
observe are to be found in minute
details, such as the rendering of
the feet, in the presence or
absence of small round eyes in low
relief, in the incised pubic triangle,
and/or on the back part of the
idols, where an horizontal incision
is thus creating the buttocks.
- (CB. 234)
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