Ancient Greek (Unknown), CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Marble seated harp player
by Ancient Greek (Unknown), -2700
Artwork Details
Details
- Year
- -2700
- Medium
- Marble
- Size
- H. with harp 11 1/2 in. (29.21 cm)
Cite or Embed This Work
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Ancient Greek This Cycladic marble figure dates to roughly 2800-2700 BCE, making it nearly 5,000 years old. It depicts a man seated in a high-backed chair, playing a large frame harp. The face is almost featureless: just a nose, brow ridge, large hollow ears, and slightly parted lips that suggest singing. It's one of the earliest known depictions of a musician in the history of art.
Thought to come from the Greek island of Naxos, it stands just 29.2 cm (11.5 inches) tall. Pigment analysis has revealed traces of paint on the back of the head, confirming that Cycladic sculptures (often assumed to be pure white) were originally colored. The simplified, almost abstract forms of Cycladic art strongly influenced 20th-century modernists like Brancusi, Modigliani, and Henry Moore.
It's on view in Gallery 151 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the Robert and Renée Belfer Court for Early Greek Art.
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About Marble seated harp player
About 4,800 years old, dating to 2800-2700 BCE. It comes from the Cycladic civilization of the Aegean islands, predating Classical Greece by over 2,000 years. It's one of the earliest known depictions of a musician anywhere in the world.
It's in Gallery 151 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the Robert and Renée Belfer Court for Early Greek Art. It was acquired in 1947 and is thought to come from the island of Naxos.
No. Pigment analysis found traces of paint on the back of the head. Like most ancient marble sculptures, it was originally colored. The clean white appearance is the result of thousands of years of wear, not the artist's intention.
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