A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF VENUS
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF BENOÎT DE GORSKI
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF VENUS

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF VENUS
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
4 ¾ in. (12.1 cm.) high
Provenance
with Galerie Arete, Zurich.
Acquired by the current owner, Geneva, from the above, 1984.
Literature
J. Chamay, "Les antiquiés d'un esthète" in Artpassions, no. 7, Geneva, 2006, p. 49.
J. Chamay, K. Gex, and F. van der Wielen, Joyaux de l'Antiquité: la collection d'un amateur, Benoit de Gorski, Geneva, 2011, pp. 32-33.

Lot Essay

This beautiful upper torso of Venus-- Aphrodite to the Greeks-- once depicted the goddess arranging her hair, holding her thick locks in each hand before tying them together in a chignon. The Aphrodite Anadyomene, as the type is known, is based upon an early Hellenistic Period creation, which was copied throughout the Roman Period, with many variations (see figs. 200-224 in M. Bieber, Ancient Copies).

Note the snake bracelet that coils up Venus' proper right arm. This style became popular during the Ptolemaic Period in Egypt, although examples are found elsewhere in the Hellenistic world and continues into the Roman Period. According to P. Higgs (p. 318 in S. Walker and P. Higgs, eds., Cleopatra of Egypt), "It was thought both that the snake was a potent symbol of fertility and that it had healing powers. The snake played an important role in the cult of Asklepios, the Greek healing god, because, as the snake lived underground in the dark, then emerged as the sun rose, it designated the transition from the underworld to the upper world. This, then, was a symbol of life and death, sickness and health, fertility and infertility."

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