Figure de type Plastiras

Plastiras type figure, attributed to the Doumas Master

In contrast to the Metropolitan Museum Master’s style, that of the Doumas Master [1], while revealing the same three-part proportional formula, is less detailed and less dramatic—and seemingly more naturalistic. Except for a 31.5 cm high female figure, statues attributed to him are rather small.

Apart from the clearly indicated primary sexual characteristics, there is no certainly deliberate difference between his male and female representations. Indeed this figure and another male one have the same rounded belly, suggestive of pregnancy, as do his female figures. Two of his male figures display on their belly a series of horizontal incisions of the sort otherwise found exclusively on EC I female figures (Plastiras, violin-shaped and certain hybrid types) as well as on later EC II works. They have been interpreted as postpartum wrinkles or bindings symbolizing the woman’s role as child bearer. On the Barbier-Mueller male figure one can discern a superficial horizontal line under the junction of the “hands”. This short line might indicate the beginning of such a series of incisions. Five incisions can be seen on another male figure’s belly and four on a female figure’s abdomen attributed to the Doumas Master. On his male statuettes this feature may be tentatively interpreted as being symbolic of sympathetic pregnancy, or ‘couvade’.

Eleven or 25% of Plastiras figures with their lower torso preserved represent male figures. This is by far the highest proportion of male figures rendered in a still pose produced at any time in the history of Cycladic sculpture. The Doumas Master appears to have been the most prolific carver of Plastiras images. He realized two other male figures besides the Barbier-Mueller example.

Only five of his works are complete, and only this one, his smallest, was restored. Like the majority of repairs on Plastiras and related figures, the repair was made on the upper leg. On the back of the figure one can observe, next to the higher perforation, the beginning of a hole that was abandoned in favor of a better location right next to it, aligned with the hole in the leg to ensure a better fastening.

The Doumas Master’s works have been found in two cemeteries on Paros and in one on Naxos. They are the only Plastiras figures recovered by archaeologists in the course of sanctioned excavations.

Published in: Zimmermann 1993, p. 81 and 141 (number 21).

[1] On the Doumas Master, see Getz-Gentle (2001) p. 61-63, 151 (checklist updated with previous bibliography); pl. 53.