STATUTE OF APHRODITE OR ANADYOMEN VENUS Roman... Lot 31

STATUTE OF APHRODITE OR ANADYOMEN VENUS Roman art, 1st - 2nd century AD Bronze H. 26 cm Provenance Former Japanese private collection Sale Sotheby "s London, April 29, 1974, lot 326, reproduced in the catalog Acquired with Mr. Stanley Casson in London, in 1974 Bibliography Kokusai Bijutsu, Ltd, Tokyo, 2nd Exhibition Catalogue, 1974, reproduced under n° 66 The statuette, which is hollow, was cast with lost wax. Artistically, this image reaches a very good quality: the proportions are correct; the position appears very natural and realistic; the style is precise and nuanced, both in the rendering of the plastic details and in those engraved. It represents a woman with a youthful appearance, completely naked, who is standing. Strands of hair are visible on her shoulders. The weight of her body is supported by her right leg, while the left one was slightly bent and moved back (only the tip of the foot touched the ground). According to the shapes and contours still visible, the position of the shoulders and arms was asymmetrical: the left one was raised horizontally, at shoulder height, while the right one descended along the torso. Although the forearms are not preserved, the pattern seems to correspond to that of a very famous statue already for the Ancients, the Aphrodite/ Venus Anadyomene, which was one of the most beloved and reproduced images of the Hellenistic and imperial period: the goddess of Love, seen from the front by the spectator, folded her arms and wore her hair in her hands. The original type was created in the 4th century B.C. by Apelles, the painter that tradition indicates as one of the most famous of antiquity: in a famous painting of Cos, Apelles would have painted Aphrodite coming out of the sea and tying her hair around her head, or simply drying it by clasping it between her hands. This scheme quickly became very famous and was copied many times, in sculpture, as here, but also in other paintings (frescoes of Pompeii) and in the mosaic. In the copies, and in particular in the three-dimensional images, the lower part of the body presents important differences, since in the original painting Aphrodite "s legs were covered by the waves of the sea and therefore remained invisible (often they are simply covered by a draped cloth). Besides the marble copies, most often destined to decorate the gardens of the villas of wealthy citizens, of which the Aphrodite of Arles is the most famous among the figures that reproduce the scheme of the Anadyomena (fig. 1), there is an important series of bronze statuettes that repeat the same gesture. They were generally offered in the sanctuaries of the goddess of Love, as a proof of devotion, in gratitude for a favor or in view of a particular request. Conservation The statuette is in good condition, but it has lost the head, the arms and the lower part of the legs. Complete and in very good condition. The surface, carefully restored, is covered with a beautiful brown patina, but shows some corrosions and marks of blows. Bibliography See also for the iconography of Venus : Brinkerhoff D.M., Hellenistic Statues of Aphrodite: Studies in the History of their, Stylistic Development, New York, 1978, pp. 56 ff (Aphrodite Anadyomene). Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), vol. VIII Suppl, Zürich - Düsseldorf, 1997, s.v. Venus, pp. 206 ff, pl. 142ff SMITH R.R.R., Hellenistic Sculpture, London, 1991, pp. 79 ff.