GrB023
Graeco ???Roman bronze figurine of Isis Aphrodite
2nd century BC???1st century AD.
Height: 23.3 cm. (9 1/8 in.)
Condition: Missing lower part of the left leg and details of the diadem. Fine green patina with red spots.
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Isis-Aphrodite, a syncretistic goddess of Hellenistic origin, combining the Egyptian goddess Isis with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. The goddess is nude standing in contraposto, with her weight on her left leg, and her right leg is slightly bent. Her left hand with long fingers stretched aside and the right hand bent at the elbow and raised to hold the sistrum. She is wearing an elaborated stephane with radiated, openwork palmetts on the top. Her centrally parted hair pulled into a knot at the back of her head, with two long corkscrew curls falling on each shoulder.
The figure of the goddess is the figure of Aphrodite, modeled after the Classical style of the 4th century BC, inspired by the Greek Aphrodite of Praxiteles, The Aphrodite of Cnidos, 350-340 BC., which was considered by Pliny the Elder, the Roman author (23-79 AD), to be the finest statue in the world.
The head with the serene beauty of the face, and the body expresses the ideal of the Classical feminine beauty: mature and full, with rounded hips and buttocks, small waist and full rounded breasts.
The attributes: the diadem and the sistrum, are of the Egyptian goddess Isis.
For other Greek bronze Aphrodite inspired by the Praxitelian Aphrodite:
Cf. Richter 1987, p.202, no. 286 (Bronze statue of Aphrodite, 4th century B.C. New York, Metropolitan Museum.).
Smith – 1991, p. 95, no. 103 (Aphrodite Anadyomene. 1st century BC or AD. London, British Museum no.1084).
Rolley, C., 1986, pp. 166-167, no.147 (London, British Museum no.1084).
Richter 1987
Richter, G.M.A., A Handbook of Greek Art. A Survey of the Visual Arts of Ancient Greece, Phaidon Press Limited, 1987
Smith, RRR – London 1991
Smith, RRR – London 1991- Smith, RRR. Hellenistic Sculpture, London
1991.
Rolley, C., 1986
Rolley, C., Greek Bronzes, Sotheby’s Publications, 1986
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