WorldWide

Rapt in his music, this ancient musician tilts his head toward the sky. Found on one of the Greek islands known as the Cyclades, the delicate figure (measuring only 14 inches high) was carved from local marble almost 4,500 years ago. Working with exceptional skill and patience, the Cycladic sculptor captured the musician between notes—the harpist’s right arm rests on the instrument’s sound box while his left encircles the harp’s frame. An abstract swan’s head decorates the top of the harp, an ornamental motif that continued in Greek and Etruscan art until the early fifth century B.C. Although the […]