Daedalic Sculpture

Daedalic sculpture, type of sculpture attributed to a legendary Greek artist, Daedalus, who is connected in legend both to Bronze Age Crete and to the earliest period of Archaic sculpture in post-Bronze Age Greece. The legends about Daedalus recognize him both as a man and as a mythical embodiment. The writer Pausanias thought that wooden images were referred to as daidala even before Daedalus’s time. Daedalic sculpture reveals Eastern influences, known as Orientalizing in Greek art. Orientalizing is particularly noticeable in the head seen from the front; it resembles an Eastern head, with wiglike hair, but is more angular, having a triangular face, large eyes, and a prominent nose. The female body is rather flatly geometric, with high waist and formless drapery. Early sculpture exhibiting these attributes is known as Daedalic; it was used for figurines, on clay plaques, and in relief decorations on vases. It seems to have had a marked influence in the Peloponnese, Dorian Crete, and Rhodes.