Lot Essay
This version of the goddess Aphrodite, known from about twenty ancient replicas, is traditionally associated with the epithets Pontia (of the sea) and Euploia (fair voyage). According to Vermuele and Brauer (Stone Sculptures, The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, p. 50-51), the original is traditionally thought to be from the time of Praxiteles, circa 350 B.C., and may have stood in a temple by the sea. However, the draped head, elongated body and hipshot pose suggests that the original of these copies was created in the Hellenistic world, perhaps on the island of Rhodes, circa 150 B.C. The present example, like the version at Harvard (no. 34 in Vermeule and Brauer, op. cit.), is approximately two-thirds lifesized. The most complete example from the Ince Blundell Hall, now in Liverpool, preserves the veiled head, which wears a diadem, and the dolphin support, confirming that the type represents Aphrodite rather than a nymph (see no. 599 in Delivorrias, "Aphrodite" in LIMC). The type was also appropriated by the Romans for private portraiture; see the example in the Capitoline Museum, Rome, with a Trajanic portrait, no. 71 in Schmidt, "Venus" in LIMC.