A GREEK MARBLE APHRODITE

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK MARBLE APHRODITE
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.
The goddess standing on an integral plinth with her weight on her left leg, her right leg advanced and crossing the left, her left hip thrust dramatically to the side, her left arm lowered onto her hip, the torso nude, her drapery wrapped loosely around her waist revealing the upper portions of her pudendum, and falling over her left forearm, the fanning folds finely sculpted, a loop of cloth protruding to the right of her navel, a weight at the corners of the drapery visible along her left side, the toes of her left foot visible below the hem, her head angled slightly downward and to her left, the face with idealizing features, a pointed chin and wavy hair pulled up in a top-knot, her separately-made right arm now missing
25 in. (63.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Mrs. J.T., Belgium, 1956; thence by descent.
Art Market, Switzerland, 1993.

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Lot Essay

The composition of this statue, with her loose drapery low on her hips, follows a Hellenistic tradition of completely revealing the goddess' torso. Like the Pontia-Euploia, Urania, Arles and Anadyomene Types, this Aphrodite is portrayed with the legs wrapped in her drapery and her torso nude, allowing the artist to display his talent in juxtaposing the sensuous folds of the drapery with the smooth voluptuousness of her body. As Bieber notes (Ancient Copies, p. 44), "the naked torso emerges from the drapery like a flower from a calyx."

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