0114ANCIENTAphrodite_Melos

0114ANCIENTAphrodite_Melos

Louvre website
Sappho "Hymn to Aphrodite"

Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Melos), ca. 200 BC, Hellenistic original in Louvre, LL 299 (Ma 399)

Praxitiles was regarded as the first sculptor to sculpt Aphrodite as an idealized nude. The revolutionary step soon took hold, and other artists followed suit. The artists' objective must have been primarily inclined to depicting truly life-like forms, or "creating beauty by making a general and schematic figure more and more lifelike until the marble's surface seems to live and breathe." (Gombrich)

ML p. 191

Full-body, slightly angled shot of the armless Venus de Milo statue, featuring intricate drapery and a serene expression

This sculpture's mystery is promoted by the loss of "attributes," i.e. any sort of identifying features. If she were holding, say, a bow in her hand she would be Artemis; a trident would make her Amphitrite; a tamborine, a maenad. Conversely, it's hard to imagine that this figure could be holding, say, a ball of string and equal, therefore, the girl Ariadne. Since her arms are gone, she holds nothing, and the conclusion is (too easily?) drawn that the figure here must be Aphrodite. Perhaps that is a default interpretation.

CONCLUSION is circular: If she's not Aphrodite, this is what Aphrodite would look like.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University and other contexts.
This resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.