The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 28
roman, 17th century
6
Bust of Venus
After the Antique
White marble and alabaster on a Bigio Morato socle
70 cm (27½ in.) high
48 cm (18 in.) wide
Exquisitely carved, the present bust is based on ancient Hellenistic and Roman
derivations of the Greek sculptor Praxiteles’ fourth-century bc masterpiece, the
Aphrodite of Knidos. In this composition, Praxiteles created a female canon of
proportions that influenced generations of artists to come. The statue originally
stood in the centre of the goddess’s temple at Knidos, in Asia Minor; while the
original is now lost, versions of it have survived, including from antiquity.
Among the many Venus variants that derive from Praxiteles’ masterpiece,
a select few have arguably rivalled their prototype’s fame. These are the Colonna
Venus, conserved in the Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican, the Medici Venus
in the Uffizi, and the Capitoline Venus in the Capitoline Museums. All three date
back to ancient Rome, and, while they certainly display many differences, all share
the same natural, animated stance characterized by a contrapposto pose. In these
statues, the head is always turned to the left, yet the nature of this turn can vary,
with the face being lowered or raised. As in the present bust, the hair is often
gathered in a bun at the back of the head, tied by a band which parts the
goddess’s curls.
A distinctively individual interpretation of the Praxitelean Aphrodite, the present
bust is based most closely on the Medici Venus (fig. 1); it emulates this version
in its treatment of the elaborate coiffure and expression, yet adds the presence
of a softly folded peplum over the goddess’s shoulders, carved in warmly veined
alabaster. The Medici Venus was recorded in the Villa Medici in Rome in 1638, and
by 1688 it was installed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi. Revered as the most beautiful
Venus to have survived from Antiquity, the Medici Venus was widely copied, as
models after renowned antiquities represented both homages to the masterpieces
of the past and statements of their owners’ refined taste and cultural aspirations.
related literature
fig. 1
Roman, 1st century bc,
Venus de’ Medici, marble, 153 cm high
Florence, Uffizi
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900,
New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 325–38
C. Mitchell Havelock, The Aphrodite of Knidos and Her Successors: A Historical Review
of the Female Nude in Greek Art, Ann Arbor, 1955, pp. 1–39
