Details

LOT 688

Roman - Important Statuette - Aphrodite

(875 grams, 272 mm (11.75 inches).).

3rd century AD. Superbly modelled solid cast, large standing figure of Aphrodite with columnar base, holding and looking into a (separately cast) circular mirror in her right hand. and with a pomegranate in her left hand.

Provenance

Ex European collection and London collections (1967). Accompanied by three documents attesting to ownership.

Literature

See Christine Mitchell Havelock, The Aphrodite of Knidos and Her Successors, 1995, for general information.

Footnotes

Most of the important depictions of Aphrodite are considered to derive from the famous Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, the renowned Greek sculptor. The figure also has affinities with the equally famed Venus de Milo. The Greeks achieved the zenith in nude sculptural depictions of goddesses; this tradition was taken up in ancient Rome, and at the Renaissance was emulated by such later masters as Cellini.

CONDITION