CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

The pose and complete nudity of this figure confirms that this is a diminutive version of the "Capitoline Venus" in Rome (see no. 84 in F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique). Originally she would have had her right hand over her breasts and her left over her pudenda. The Capitoline Venus and others like her have previously been interpreted as depicting the goddess surprised at her bath, hence her attempt to cover herself. However, this interpretation is now recognized as a 19th century conceit since there is no mythological basis to support it (see B.S. Ridgway, Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture, p. 263). According to Ridgway (op. cit.) the goddess of love "is depicted as an epiphany, not in an unexpected glimpse, and in 'heroic nudity' as unconscious and glorious-as attributive-as that of the male gods. The gesture of her right hand is meant to point to, not to hide, her womb, emphasizing her fertility and complementing the action of her left hand."