1st Floor: Cycladic Art

The Exhibition of Early Cycladic culture is situated on the first floor of the permanent Exhibitions building and opened its doors to the public in 1986. The Early Cycladic culture flourished on the islands of the central and southern Aegean during the 3rd millennium BC. The Cyclades are a group of islands in the southwestern Aegean Sea, which includes about thirty islands and numerous rocky islets.

The ancient Greeks called them Cyclades, believing them to be a circle around the sacred island of Delos, where the sanctuary of the god Apollo was located in historical times. Many of the islands are particularly rich in minerals, such as copper and lead ores, silver, emery, obsidian, and marble. Thanks to these abundant resources, the islanders of the time developed trade, metallurgy, and, above all, the art of marble carving.

The most attractive creation of this culture are their marble sculptures, and it is not surprising that the clear and abstract forms of these ancient marble figurines influenced 20th and 21st century artists such as Brancusi, Modigliani, Giacometti, Hepworth, Moore, and Ai Weiwei.