Statuette of a Woman: "The Stargazer" (c. 3000 BCE): Art, History and Details

Statuette of a Woman: "The Stargazer" (c. 3000 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

"The Stargazer" moniker was given to this diminutive marble sculpture because its upturned head looks toward the heavens. Details carved into the stone are visible while painted features have been lost to time. We do not know how this object was used, but its enigmatic nature invites speculation.

Object facts

• Title: Statuette of a Woman: "The Stargazer"
• Date: c. 3000 BCE
• Culture: Western Anatolia, early Bronze Age (c. 3300–1200 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 17.2 x 6.5 x 6.3 cm (6 3/4 x 2 9/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Near Eastern Art
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1993.165

A detail from the museum

We can identify this mysterious figure as female by the inscribed pubic triangle below her waist.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Farkas, Ann. Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me: [May 3 to September 6, 1964, the Jewish Museum New York]. New York, NY: Jewish Museum, 1964.
• Merrin Gallery. Masterpieces of Cycladic Art from Private Collections, Museums and the Merrin Gallery. 1989.
• Kozloff, Arielle. "Recent Acquisition: Stargazer." Cleveland Museum of Art Member Magazine 33-34 (1993-1994).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.