Mystery of the Cyclades : Art: A Getty exhibit exposes the enchanting beauty and dearth of knowledge of the Bronze Age works.

Of all the ancient art that wins hearts and captures the public imagination, none is more appealing than Cycladic sculpture. Bronze Age figures and vessels produced on the Aegean islands known as the Cyclades appear strangely up to date and reassuringly friendly. The art’s formal simplicity embodies modern ideals of elegant refinement and essential truth, while its warmth, humanity and small scale provide a sense of intimacy.

Collectors have voted for Cycladic art with their checkbooks, paying up to $2 million at auction for the 9-inch head of an exceptionally large goddess figure. Members of the public simply gravitate to exhibitions of the ancient sculpture--perhaps in the belief that it is possible to know these mysterious artworks. It is certainly possible to love them. Cycladic figures with upturned heads have been nicknamed “stargazers” and a resemblance to E.T. has been noted.

The popular appeal of one of its most valuable caches of ancient art has not been lost on the J. Paul Getty Museum, which recently opened a new installation of Cycladic art including 15 stone figures and 20 vessels of terra cotta and stone. “These are the best and the most complete pieces we have,” said Karen Manchester, an assistant curator of antiquities who supervised the installation.

The Getty’s Cycladic holding has been assembled in less than a decade, about 100 years after Cycladic art came to light, but the collection’s exceptional range and quality rank it with the best in the country. Although the new installation includes a few hoped-for additions, on loan from private collections, the most important examples belong to the museum.

Pieces now on view in a light-filled gallery represent a range of art produced in Early Cycladic periods, around 3200-2000 BC. Figurative sculptures, running from a couple of inches to a couple of feet in height, include works by the Steiner, Schuster and Goulandris masters. These sculptors, who lived around 2500-2400 BC, developed distinctive styles and have been named for prominent collectors.

The earliest figures exhibited are relatively realistic, while later ones (including those of the three masters) are highly stylized and typically depict nude females with their arms folded. Although often displayed vertically--the better to see them--these figures were designed as reclining idols.

Cycladic sculptors produced far more vessels than figurative images. Two cases at the Getty present a variety of covered jars, footed cups and bowls--some with thick walls and others carved so thin that they are translucent. The vessels made of clay are often incised with herringbone patterns that may have been inspired by basketry.

The objects were amassed with income from J. Paul Getty’s endowment but without his acquisitive instincts; the billionaire oilman, who avidly pursued classical antiquities, bought no Cycladic pieces. In 1983, seven years after Getty’s death, the museum purchased its first significant Bronze Age sculpture--a female idol from Cyprus that probably predates Cycladic sculpture. Two years later, the museum acquired a complex carving of a harpist that is one of only nine such figures whose authenticity is unquestioned, according to Pat Getz-Preziosi, an eminent authority. Males, musicians and seated figures are all extremely rare in Cycladic art, Manchester said, pointing out unusual features of the 14-inch marble figure.

The acquisition of 10 major pieces--including eight from the renowned Paul and Marianne Steiner collection--added the Steiner Master’s trademark female figure and a “stargazer” from Anatolia to the Getty’s collection in 1988. A striking Early Cycladic idol attributed to the Schuster Master and several marble vessels joined the collection in 1990. This year’s acquisitions include several stone and terra cotta vessels from the collection of Hans Erlenmeyer of Germany.

Visitors won’t find references to E.T. in the new Cycladic gallery, but they will discover the first example of a new concept of didactic material designed to provide easy access to information about the artworks on display. It’s a three-tiered system, beginning with labels that note unique features of individual artworks, Manchester said. Second, labels in cases explain materials, design or other common characteristics of pieces that are exhibited together.

Third, panels mounted on the gallery walls provide geographical, chronological and historical context. There’s a map of the Cyclades and archeological sites for people whose knowledge of the islands may be limited to the beaches of Mykonos. A time line shows how the Getty’s sculptures fit into Cycladic history. Panels of text provide background on the Early Bronze Age and Cycladic culture.

Manchester calls the system “a hierarchical approach” to education, but visitors can assimilate the information in any order. As a leader in the field of museum education, the Getty has studied visitors’ viewing patterns and found that everyone does not move clockwise or appreciate the feeling of riding on a conveyor belt. “This allows for everyone--the people who spend two minutes in a gallery, as well as those who spend 25 minutes,” Manchester said.

Most visitors who read the labels and wall panels will surely emerge from the gallery with heightened awareness of Cycladic art, but they won’t learn much about the function of these objects. Although scholarship has advanced in the last decade, Cycladic art is a comparatively new field of study and there are far more questions than answers, Manchester said.

Some objects have been found in graves, but scholars do not know if they were buried as the deceased’s personal possessions or if they were thought to have supernatural power. Some figures appear to be pregnant, leading to speculation that they represent fertility goddesses, but uses of the sculptures are simply not known, Manchester said. Scholars haven’t even been able to determine that the classical Greeks knew about Cycladic art, although there is a suspicious similarity in the forms of some vessels, she noted.

Answers may come in the future, but for now the public is left with beautiful objects that are shrouded in mystery.