CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF VENUS
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
17 ½ in. (44.5 cm.) high

Provenance

David Burgess, U.S., acquired in 1949 or prior.
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, gifted from the above in memory of Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932), 1949 (Accession no. 1949.16).
Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Antiquities, Sotheby’s, New York, 10 December 1999, lot 388.

Literature

M.A. del Chiaro, Classical Art at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, 1985, pp. 46-47, no. 14.

Exhibited

Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Lot Essay

Of this torso, M.A. del Chiaro writes: "its stance with legs originally parted and one ever so slightly advanced, tilt of the torso, and extant portions of the arms reveal an active pose recalling an Aphrodite type that shows the goddess putting on a necklace or stephane (diadem), or arranging her hair as she holds a mirror, perfume vase, or the like" (op. cit. p. 46). For an original Greek example in bronze exemplifying the type del Chiaro describes, see figs. 37, 38 and 39 in M. Bieber, The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age.

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