Glyptics (Version 1)

Styles and workshops

Fussy variant

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – July 2000, August 2024

fussy or fuzzy?

The heads are carved in the same way as the Dotted Eye Style but the nose of the animals is emphasized by a drill hole indicating the end of the nose (as in the Oval Head Variant). The composition is very different in this variant however; whole or partial animals are scattered indiscrimently over the entire field. A5q704Oi is a good example. The animal heads are large (as in Dotted Eye?) and because of the way they are carved prominent, the bodies are formed around one or two drill holes (eg one for the scorpion). Most of all the composition is a scatter of figures in different directions and made up of some descrete figures (sometimes linked in confused ways) as well as parts of figures; both animals and geometric designs are found in an incoherent overall compositional pattern.

Another good example is A5.180.an animal combat scene. The body of the caprid is full but the legs are very linear, the bulbous nose is out of proportion with the face. The horns are not a clear linear pattern but have some unclear curved lines associated with them. On the other hand the lion has a face in outline with a large dotted eye in the center. His open mouth is a thicker line than his head. The figure in the homed cap on the end of the scene carries a long weapon and is shown by a large nose. He may be holding the tail of the lion. To the left is a seated figure but its relationship to the rest of the scene is unclear.

A5q704ol is a good example of the disorganized compositions of the Fussy Inin Shadu style. While the finest examples of the original style arc an elaborately interlocked pattern which at the same time highlights the individual figures (as opposed to the ED III animal combat scenes which emphasize the interlocking of the figures in the pattern at the expense of the individual figures) this example with its unclear mixture of humans and animals and parts of animals is at the opposite extreme. There is also a mixture ot puffy, budging forms with the characteristically extreme linear heads wit hdotted eyes.

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