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

The voluptuous nude female form in white marble is arguably the most iconic image surviving from antiquity. Born from the sea foam, the goddess of love, Aphrodite to the Greeks, Venus to the Romans, was the embodiment of beauty, sexuality and fertility. The most celebrated statue of the goddess in ancient times was fashioned by the renowned sculptor Praxiteles for the goddess' temple at Knidos, circa 350 B.C. Thought to be the very first depiction of the goddess in full nudity, Praxiteles' original survives only in a multitude of Hellenistic and Roman interpretations, many of which depict her in various states of undress. Over-lifesized and finely-sculpted, the present work is a notable Roman example of the pudica type that seemingly presents a unique treatment for the drapery. Closest in spirit is the Venus Menophantos, a 1st century B.C. statue found in the Camaldolese monastery of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome, and now in the Palazzo Massimo, Rome, which bears the signature of the sculptor Menophantos (see no. 422 in A. Delivorrias et al., "Aphrodite," in LIMC, vol. II). Like the example presented here, Menophantos' Venus has a mantle diagonally across her left leg, but it does not extend across her pudenda to the right arm.