Cycladic Female Figures in the Getty Villa, July 2008

Large Female Figure with Incised Toes (figurine on the left)
Attributed to the Steiner Master
Cycladic, 2500 - 2400 B.C.
Marble
23 9/16 in.
88.AA.80

Reclining with her arms crossed, this female figure is typical of the sculpture of the Cyclades in the mid-2000s B.C. Scholars have divided Cycladic sculpture into groups or types indicating stylistic and chronological developments. Named for a cemetery on the island of Naxos, the Spedos type was the most common of Cycladic figures: a slender elongated female with folded arms characterized by a U-shaped head and a deeply incised, but not cut-through, cleft between the legs. The figure's relaxed, slanting feet indicate her reclining position. This late example of a Spedos figure shows the further characteristic trait of a straight profile with little bend in the knees. This piece is unusually large and finely carved for a late Spedos figure.

Text from:http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=15054

and Female Figure with Missing Feet (figurine on the right)
Possibly the Kontoleon Master
Cycladic, 2700 - 2600 B.C.
Marble
19 5/16 in.
88.AA.78

By around 2700 B.C., Cycladic sculptors had developed a form of carved figure that would become canonical: a reclining female with folded arms. The Kapsala type, named after a cemetery on the island of Amorgos, was the earliest of these canonical types.

Kapsala figures tend to have slender and elongated proportions. In an effort to avoid breakage, the legs of the figure are only partially separated; the feet of this figure have broken off. Anatomical features such as arms are modeled three-dimensionally, whereas in later types, sculptors rendered this feature with incised lines. The Getty Museum's piece is unusually large for a Kapsala figure.

Text from: www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=15052