AFTER THE ANTIQUE, PROBABLY ITALIAN, 18TH CENTURY

The Callipygian Venus, literally translated, derives from the stems calli - meaning beauty or good - and pyge - meaning buttocks. The prototype was conceived as a titillating and seductive observation of the female form and was inspired by Athenaeus' 3rd Century AD tale of two young beautiful girls from Syracuse arguing over who had the finer buttocks. To settle the argument they accosted a young man passing by and asked him to judge. Whilst he deemed that the elder had the finer, his younger brother concluded otherwise and fell in love with the other sister. The double marriage that followed resulted in a temple dedicated to Venus Kallipygnos in Syracuse. The antique marble original now housed in the Museo Nazionale, Naples, is recorded in the Farnese collection, Rome, in 1594. Between 1786 and 1792 it underwent restoration by the sculptor Carlo Albacini before being moved to Naples.