Cypriot Plank Idol with Baby

Early Cypriot III - Middle Cypriot I, 2100-1900 BC

A highly important Bronze Age idol, belonging to a rare and ambitious group showing infants being held to the chest in a compelling display of motherhood and fertility.

This iconic terracotta figure is one of the largest of an exceptionally rare group of Cypriot plank idols. Often associated with the ‘Great Mother Goddess’, this specific form, with infant held to the chest, embodies the themes of fertility and motherhood that lay at the heart of early Cypriot society. Acquired in Cyprus and exported under licence granted by the Department of Antiquities on 24th January 1969, it is both an outstanding example of early Cypriot artistic achievement and a remarkably well-provenanced survivor of this prehistoric Mediterranean culture.

This piece is now in a Private Collection.