Across the Early Bronze Age, between roughly 3200 and 2000 BCE, the Cycladic islands (Naxos, Paros, Keros, Amorgos) produced thousands of figurines from pure white marble. Most are 20–40 cm tall; the largest reach a metre and a half. The shared form: a head tipped slightly back, a long neck, arms folded across the chest, legs pressed together.

The cold whiteness we see now is misleading. Faint pigment traces show the figurines were painted with brows, mouths, and even tattoo-like lines across the cheeks. Their function is debated — most are found in graves, suggesting a role as escorts for the dead, perhaps a goddess figure, perhaps an image of the deceased. Many were ritually broken before burial.

The Cycladic figurine became a touchstone for twentieth-century European modernism. When Brâncuși, Modigliani, and Henry Moore rediscovered the form, the idea that abstraction was a 'recovery rather than an invention' took hold. Major collections today are in the Goulandris Museum in Athens, the Louvre, and the Met.