Capitoline Aphrodite

A free imitation of the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles.

The Aphrodite of Knidos established a new genre in Greek sculpture, the life-sized female nude. Back in Archaic and High Classical times the sculpted female form was always clothed; it was the male body which was naked. The breakthrough, made by the sculptor Praxiteles, changed the course of western art — think of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1482-6) or Picasso’s many female nudes.

The Capitoline Venus is one example of many variations on the prototype

Number

338

Material

Marble

Location of Original

Rome, Capitoline Museum, Gabinetto della Venere, 1

Size

1.81m

Accession

Transferred from the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1884

References

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 291 (n.9). pl. 104.1
Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler Griechischer und Römischer Skulptur, pl. 373
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 107, no.562
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 894, no.500

Date

Roman. Original: early Hellenistic

Provenance

Found in Rome

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