RB027
Roman bronze figure of Aphrodite.
1st-2nd century AD
H. 13 cm (5 1/8 in.)
Missing toes, otherwise perfect. Reddish brown and dark patina.
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Aphrodite (-Venus), goddess of beauty and love, is standing semi nude, with drapery covering her legs from the thighs down. She is standing in contraposto posture slightly leaning to the right, with her weight on her straight left leg, and her right leg slightly bent, creating an S shape to her body. Her head is turned to the right and slightly downwards. Her arms are raised to hold strands of her long hair which fall around them, her right arm raised sideways and her left arm held closer to her body.
Her head with centrally parted wavy hair, tied in a chignon at the back,
surmounted by a stephane.
The figure is depicted in an elegant posture, with finely modeled head, body and drapery. The head with beautiful oblong face, with almond shape eyes, straight nose and full lips. The body in fine proportions and sensual posture, with exposed sex part above the drapery, which is tied with a frontal knot below the waist.
The figure combines two types of Aphrodite depictions: Aphrodite Anadyomene, the figurative representation of Aphrodite as she rises from the sea, after being born full-grown out of the sea, and the semi draped type of the famous Venus de Milo – both of them Hellenistic prototypes.
For a similar figure in terracotta see:
Dayagi-Mendels M. and Silvia Rozenberg eds., Israel Museum, 2010, p. 104, no. 9 (left figure)
For Greek bronze Aphrodite Anadyomene see:
Hellenistic bronze statuette of Aphrodite, British Museum. Published: Rolley, C., Sotheby’s Publications, 1986, pp. 166-167, fig. 147.
For the Venus de Milo see:
Stewart, A., 1990, no. 806.
Dayagi-Mendels M. and Silvia Rozenberg eds., Chronicles of the Land: Archeology in the Israel Museum Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2010
Rolley, C., Greek Bronzes, Sotheby’s Publications, 1986
Stewart, A., Greek Sculpture. An Exploration, II ( plates ), Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1990
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